The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series. Questions include: Any tips on how to make nice presentations? - Why are there so many concepts in math that are not realized in the physical world? - What cryptocurrencies are you a fan of? Do you think any of them will "win big" in 2021? Any new players to watch? - Are big banks and governments trying to undermine the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies? - What do you think about China's new digital currency DCEP (e-yuan)? - The concept of a Democracy AI makes for a great sci-fi novel, but horrifying when applied to real life. - ​Is finding the shortest proof of a theorem computationally irreducible? - If you were sent into the past with one object of your choice with no return, what would you do to speed up human progress? (pick your favourite period before 20th century) - Do you think you will live forever now that genetic reprogramming has successfully reversed aging in lab grown human cells and organoids? David Sinclair and his Harvard associates have done this successfully in mice using Yamanaka's Nobel Prize winning gene factors. Also, are you currently doing anything to extend your life? - Stephen, do you have a Wolfram Spikey on the top of your Christmas tree? - Did you know any of the people involved with designing Ada Language? - ​Is there a formal proof that computational irreducibility exists? Is it possible that we will be able to predict any cellular automaton? - Is it possible to make a wire from space to earth and pull things up to space? - What will math look like in 1000 years? See the full Q&A video playlist: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series. Questions include: ​Who are your favourite Science fiction authors? What are your favourite stories/movies? - Why do people have emotions and feelings? How do emotions and feelings work? Happiness, anger, etc. - In the space of all possible mental states, what is the ratio of positive vs negative states? Is this a relative quantity? Does it obey certain transformations? - ​If people didn't have emotions then nothing would ever get done. - Do you think the set of emotions is finite? Is it possible evolution to bring a new kind of emotion in that set? Can we artificially create a new emotion? - Given our brains are most likely the source of our thoughts/emotions/etc. If there is a finite set of combinations of matter in the brain, could there then be a set of all possible thoughts? - What about the movie The Matrix? - What are your comments on the recent superconductor breakthrough? Is it a breakthrough? - If the resistance goes to zero, would the electron start accelerating without bound? - Why doesn't every single thought episode last forever? why does thought disappear after it arise? - How do you get your staff to get so much done, especially so much hard stuff?? See the full Q&A video playlist: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series. Questions include: ​Why do some people commonly refer the internet to the World Wide Web? Isn't The world wide web a bunch of networks or website on the internet? - ​Is there a philosopher who had developed a system which is close to your perspective right now? - What are your tips about writing essays? - Why does the electron and the proton have the same amount of charge? - Why can't magnetic monopoles exist? - Bearing in mind the current topic, as well as thinking about Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - do you ever think about how humans might be 'thinking' in the future... (thinking paradigms of thought related to the future) - Do I have an opinion about such and such papers? - I don't know if Stephen was asked this question during these, but let me ask: Hello Stephen, how are you? - Would you advise today's gen Z to become independent researchers rather than academics? - Do you like Turtles? See the full Q&A video playlist: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series. Questions include: Are instruction sets architectures important for simulating physical systems, and how they could change the way kids understand computers? - How much do you follow your instincts? How do you develop a good instinct, in science and in life? - What is the financial market? - Jack Dorsey is endorsing your idea of an algorithm choice by third parties, would u be an adviser for the implementation?​ - Since we collided particles in accelerators ... Does a proton has a surface and how does it looks like? - Do you believe pursuing both Computer Science and Actuarial Science is a good idea? - How can protons be perfectly spherical while also being composed of three quarks? - Do you have any tips on getting ahead of my class and into research? See the full Q&A video playlist: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series. Questions include: Can you explain computational irreducibility like you're telling a 6 year old? - How different is nanotechnology manufacturing different from normal manufacturing? - What is the historical relationship between chemistry and physics? Is chemistry a sub-branch of physics? - ​Can aging really be cured? - ​Isn't death a fundamental factor of evolution to more sophisticated beings? - What about the "immortal jellyfish"? - ​Is there anything more terrifying than living forever? - If there is ethical problems with eternal life what kind of issues would it be is it about resources and if so are our resources finite? - Will there be nanomachine that reprogram cells to prolong life or even make life go on forever? - ​Is infinity a semi-theological concept? Is infinity beyond counting and measuring – and therefore not fundamentally an empirical concept? See the full Q&A video playlist: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series. Is there a physical principle that governs Moore's law? Why is there so much available computation? - If F=ma, and photons have a mass of 0, how can light sails work? Do photons have some properties of having mass? - As of right now, what do you anticipate will be the outcome of the Wolfram Physics Project? What practical applications will it have? - What is more difficult for you to create things or to explain how they work to others? - Has your physics project shed any light on the protein folding problem? If you squint right, there seems to be a connection. - How does black hole merging work? - Is there any theory about what type of particles a potential black hole would be made off? - What's your experience and opinion about Alchemy and is it possible to incorporate a modernized version of it into Mathematica? - What do we know about the nature of time travel? Will time machines as depicted in science fiction stories remain fiction for the foreseeable future? - Can there be architectures that do not seem to make sense that simply have higher order of complexity not dependent on binary arithmetic circuits? That will be used in future? - I am currently in high school, what advice would you give to an aspiring mathematician? See the full Q&A video playlist: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series. Questions include: Why is that the sunspot cycle is important for shortwave radio? - ​What aspects of the origin of life would be interesting to investigate with current computing tools? - How does 3d printing work and what is its potential? - How do you think like a mathematician or scientist? I have read and heard that math and science take a different mental process than what we are shown at school. What skills should I be building? - Do you think we could see a day when people are taught/educated by AI and computers, either with or instead of people and what do you think of this, especially when compared to education today? - What is the difference between science and philosophy? See the full Q&A video playlist: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Stephen Wolfram discusses the new Wolfram Physics Project, this time specifically for an open Q&A. See the full Wolfram Physics Project video playlist on YouTube: https://wolfr.am/youtube-wpp

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series. Questions include: Where were you in the dot com bubble burst and your wisdom was needed? - What work did you do at Bell labs? Who did you meet? - Was it the need in telephone grid that drove the innovation of the transistor? - How many shirts do you own? - Are there any string theorists who believe that nature is finite and digital? - Great scientists typically have great students. Is it because something is transferred from a teacher to a student or because talented people try to reach outstanding supervisors? - What age do you think is the best age to start coding? and why? - Hi Dr. Wolfram, what does it mean 'correlation does not imply causation'? - Dr. Wolfram, can you give an example what you will do with Wolfram language if you were 13 years old? See the full Q&A video playlist: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series. Questions include: I was wondering about your thoughts on Claude Shannon, information entropy, and information theory in general. I believe this field is responsible for so much technology and progress around us, but doesn't get its due praise in the mainstream. - What books / exercises are best to take me from a high school level physics / mathematics understanding to being able to make sense of the wolfram physics model? - Why is the core of the Earth as hot as the surface of the sun? Fusion or fission? Is this true of many planets/moons in our solar system? - What good and bad aspects are there to being financially successful? How did your life change when you first became a millionaire? - If you got a chance to talk to Richard Feynman, right now in 2020, and ask only one question, what would it be? - It is 'easy' to make a bot for every video game? How god ant-bot detection methods can be? - What outreach do you do for students in a similar situation as I was in, to help people succeed as I did? Any plans on increasing that outreach? See the full Q&A video playlist: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa