British-American computer scientist, mathematician, physicist, writer and businessman (born 1959)
POPULARITY
434 episodes with Stephen Wolfram
17 episodes with Stephen Wolfram
13 episodes with Stephen Wolfram
4 episodes with Stephen Wolfram
3 episodes with Stephen Wolfram
4 episodes with Stephen Wolfram
2 episodes with Stephen Wolfram
13 episodes with Stephen Wolfram
63 episodes with Stephen Wolfram
Please join my mailing list here
Please join my mailing list here
Stephen reads a blog from https://writings.stephenwolfram.com and then answers questions live from his viewers.Read the blog along with Stephen: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/12/observer-theory/Watch the original livestream on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qm3Y6qxdOwM
Please join my mailing list here
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaTopics discussed: Copyright and creative ownership in an AI world - AI built into personal systems - Data scraping, consent and privacy tradeoffs - AI roles in the real world - AI and the future of teaching and learning - First encounters with computers
Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaTopics: Conscious experience and perception - Brain structure and sensory extension - Brain manipulation and individuality - Consciousness and artificial systems - Computational theory and the brain
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business, innovation, and managing life as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qaTopics discussed: Building companies that do real science - New frontiers in science, complex systems and generative art - Risks of algorithmic trading and LLMs in finance - Balancing science and profits - Blockchain ideas that aren't just buzzwords
Stephen Wolfram is a physicists, mathematician, and programmer who believes he has discovered the computational rules that organize the universe at the finest grain. These rules are not physical rules like the equations of state or Maxwell's equations. According to Wolfram, these are rules that govern how the universe evolves and operates at a level at least one step down below the reality that we inhabit. His computational principles are inspired by the results observed in cellular automata systems, which show that it's possible to take a very simple system, with very simple rules, and end up at complex patterns that often look organic and always look far more intricate than the black and white squares that the game started with. We sit down with him for a conversation about the platonic endeavor that he has undertaken, where to draw the line between lived experience and the computational universe, the limits of physics, and the value of purpose and the source of consciousness. MAKE HISTORY WITH US THIS SUMMER:https://demystifysci.com/demysticon-2025PATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysciPARADIGM DRIFThttps://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show00:00 Go!00:02:07 Entropy and Computational Irreducibility00:09:45 Understanding Observers in Physics00:15:12 The Concept of Time as Computation00:23:00 Neural Networks and Determinism00:30:03 Understanding Space and Its Nature00:39:24 Exploring the Nature of Emergence and Reality00:41:44 Perception and Computational Limitations of Human Minds00:46:18 The Complexity of Existence and Consciousness00:51:58 The Universe's Computation versus Human Understanding00:55:42 Conceptualizing Reality Beyond Physical Actors01:01:11 Computational Irreducibility in Biological Systems01:09:49 The Nature of Experience in Humans and Machines01:14:25 Internal Experiences and the Connection to Purpose01:18:07 Exploration of Purpose in Life and AI01:26:00 The Nature of Human Existence and Purpose01:35:19 Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Understanding Reality01:41:02 Communication Across Species02:01:13 Emergence of Simple Rules in Physics02:14:47 Observers and the Universe02:19:14 The Role of Mass and Experience02:24:02 Self-Reproduction and Evolution02:30:50 Complexity and Natural Selection02:37:07 Foundations of Medicine02:40:45 Application of Physics Concepts in Other Fields02:49:44 Limits and Possibilities of Travel Through Space02:53:11 Future of Human Civilization and Technology02:55:05 Science and Pre-Existing Questions about the Universe02:58:05 The Intersection of Mathematics and Physical Reality#physics, #computationalphysics, #consciousness, #freewill, #determinism, #spaceexploration, #evolution, #purpose, #futureofhumanity, #complexsystems , #machinelearning, #philosophypodcast , #sciencepodcast, #longformpodcast ABOUS US: Anastasia completed her PhD studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities. PATREON: get episodes early + join our weekly Patron Chat https://bit.ly/3lcAasBMERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci.myspreadshop.com/allAMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaDSUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysciBLOG: http://DemystifySci.com/blog RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rssMAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySciMUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671
Stephen Wolfram is a British-American computer scientist, physicist, and entrepreneur best known for founding Wolfram Research and creating Mathematica and the computational knowledge engine Wolfram|Alpha. A child prodigy, he published scientific papers in physics by the age of 15 and earned his Ph.D. from Caltech at 20. He later developed A New Kind of Science, proposing that simple computational rules can explain complex phenomena in nature. Wolfram has been a pioneer in symbolic computation, computational thinking, and AI. His work continues to influence science, education, and technology.In our conversation we discuss:(00:00) What was the first version of AI?(23:38) What triggered the current AI revolution?(34:19) Did OpenAI base its initial algorithm on Google's work?(46:47) What is the technological gap between now and achieving AGI?(1:15:59) Do you fear an AI-driven world you can't fully understand?(1:35:15) What do we need to unlearn if AI can replicate human abilities?(1:47:39) What happens when there aren't enough jobs due to automation?(1:54:01) How is AI reshaping people's views on wealth?(2:25:48) The future of automating software developmentLearn more about Stephen WolframWebsite: https://www.stephenwolfram.com/index.php.enWikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_WolframWatch full episodes on: https://www.youtube.com/@seankimConnect on IG: https://instagram.com/heyseankim
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business, innovation, and managing life as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qaTopics discussed: Starting and funding a biotech company - Thinking clearly and building ideas from scratch - Getting better at asking questions - Is college still worth it? - The future of remote workspaces - Words, language and how we talk.
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaTopics: Studying the history of science - Contradictions and accuracy in historical research - History of memory research - Planck's constant
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaTopics discussed: Fusion energy and nuclear fuel design - AI reasoning, learning and scientific roles - Mathematics, computation and physical reality - Jobs and fields at risk from AI - Philosophy of knowledge and future roles
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: Do you know anything about the history of vaccines? When was the first vaccine developed and for what? - Isn't some important part of how vaccines were discovered completely lost to history? - When was the crucial importance of epigenetics discovered or realized? - What have been your interactions with early-day or notable biotech people & companies (Genentech etc.) and interplay between your own projects/techs and their development if any? - I had no idea Alan Turing was the progenitor of morphogenesis!
Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: Books have been relatively unchanged—would you say that's a "technology" that has been mastered? - My son asks: Given there's a max amount of information you can store in a given region of space, how can we simulate complex systems (like brains or universes) without exceeding physical limits? - We're taught science discovers truth through observation and experiment. But in practice, I see science building mathematical models that work—sometimes treated as exact reality. How do you, as a scientist, separate calculation tools from physical truth in your actual work? Where does experience draw that line? - What lessons can we learn from the evolution of flight? Beyond the mechanics, Dawkins reflects In the book Flights of Fancy on the broader implications of flight evolution, considering what it reveals about natural selection, adaptation and the interconnectedness of life.
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: What is your view on photonic computing? - The Platonic solids have fascinated humans like us for years. Do you think the exploration of the four-dimensional hyper-Platonic solids may be useful? - Do you think there'll be, in the short-to-mid-term future, an AI architecture that manages to synthesize mental images to the level most humans do (mainly visual-spatial)? - Have you come across the synthetic biology field, e.g. biological computer chips, Neuralink? What is your opinion on such fields in science and the future? - Do you think training AI for generative video will end up with an internal model of physics?
What if gravity is not fundamental but emerges from quantum entanglement? In this episode, physicist Ted Jacobson reveals how Einstein's equations can be derived from thermodynamic principles of the quantum vacuum, reshaping our understanding of space, time, and gravity itself. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/SpotifyTOE Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 01:11 The Journey into Physics 04:26 Spirituality and Physics 06:29 Connecting Gravity and Thermodynamics 09:22 The Concept of Rindler Horizons 13:12 The Nature of Quantum Vacuum 20:53 The Duality of Quantum Fields 32:59 Understanding the Equation of State 35:05 Exploring Local Rindler Horizons 47:15 Holographic Duality and Space-Time Emergence 58:19 The Metric and Quantum Fields 59:58 Extensions and Comparisons in Gravity 1:26:26 The Nature of Black Hole Physics 1:31:04 Comparing Theories Links Mentioned:: • Ted's published papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QyHAXo8AAAAJ&hl=en • Claudia de Rham on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve_Mpd6dGv8 • Neil Turok on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZCa1pVE20 • Bisognano–Wichmann theorem: https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/Bisognano-Wichmann+theorem • Scott Aaronson and Jacob Barandes on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rbC3XZr9-c • Stephen Wolfram on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRlQQw0d-4 • Ruth Kastner on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BsHh3_vCMQ • Jacob Barandes on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaS1usLeXQM • Leonard Susskind on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p_Hlm6aCok • Ted's talk on black holes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYt2Rm_dXf4 • Ted Jacobson: Diffeomorphism invariance and the black hole information paradox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6kdHge-NNY • Bose–Einstein condensate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose–Einstein_condensate • Holographic Thought Experiments (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/0808.2845 • Peter Woit and Joseph Conlon on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAaXk_WoQqQ • Chiara Marletto on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uey_mUy1vN0 • Entanglement Equilibrium and the Einstein Equation (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1505.04753 • Ivette Fuentes on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUj2TcZSlZc • Unitarity and Holography in Gravitational Physics (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/0808.2842 • The dominant model of the universe is cracking (Economist article): https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/06/19/the-dominant-model-of-the-universe-is-creaking • Suvrat Raju's published papers: https://www.suvratraju.net/publications • Mark Van Raamsdonk's published papers: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=k8LsA4YAAAAJ&hl=en • Ryu–Takayanagi conjecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryu–Takayanagi_conjecture Support TOE on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: What roles do category and type theory play in our understanding and the future of mathematics? - What would be an example of a hierarchy of types in theoretical physics? - Would you ever take a trip on Blue Origin or Space X ? Do you see more for the future of space travel happening sooner or later? - Do you think humans could/will evolve to adapt to space travel? - Say you could teleport to the Moon or Mars instead of travel by spaceship—would you take that travel option? - Space is a very hazardous place compared to Earth (radioactivity etc.). Chips in space would need to be very shielded and hence very expensive, I believe. - Why don't we use shielded nuclear waste to heat buildings (like in the basement attached to the HVAC system, in secure buildings)? - Closer to Earth, what do you see as the short-to-medium term future for inhabited orbital space stations and beyond that, in the longer-term future? - From genetic issues to space travel damage, do you think the main advances and solutions will come more from preventing or from repairing or an equal mix of both? - How would you think about AI-controlled humans if bionic brains become mainstream?
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: Is there much history on scientists (well known or not) starting companies? - If Leibniz was around today, where do you think he would be working, what would he be doing if he was not in academia? - Any interesting suggestions for history to research? - What's the history of walking meetings? Were there notable practitioners before you? - Was the first GUI+mouse+keyboard predictable beforehand or was it a surprise at the time?
Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: How would you, Stephen Wolfram, think about replacing textbooks in education? What are some better tools for the classroom? - Can you teach us how to be scientists? What's the first step? - Intellectual curiosity is required to be a good scientist. And moral character, to stand by what you find, even if controversial. - If you can explain it in simple terms, you understand it. - I wanted to be a scientist as a kid, but I was actively discouraged from doing that. What would you tell to a kid to encourage them? - How will new technology and especially GenAI change our education, and what role should parents play during this crucial transition? - Do you think it would be [good] to make some infrastructures to think more creatively, e.g. logging your thoughts and trying to dissect your mental models, etc.? - In my experience, the kids that should become scientists start asking, "How do we know that?" early on. And for most adults (especially teachers!), that is the hardest question. - I heard that physicists still don't understand how friction works. Is that true? - How would you answer where this universe gets its "expanding substance" from? - Would you be open to the possibility of other mathematics than the one we use now? Would be happy to hear your thoughts on this subject. - Do you think that the emergence of AI in our lives marks the end of curiosity, or the beginning of an era where curiosity will grow even greater because it will be satisfied? - What effect do you think wide-scale adoption of LLMs will have on the boundary of the knowable? - How do you feel about integrating 3D models, animations, AI... overall media, to learning science? For example, having as output a 3D model and animation of flight path instead of just numbers and plain text on paper? - How would you think about encryption in the age of AI and LLMs? It seems like they would be able to pick up the patterns with ease once exposed. - Is it possible to build a compact mechanical SHA256 encryption device that will be resistant to solar flares?
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business, innovation, and managing life as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qaQuestions include: Did you see the recent news about the dire wolves coming back from extinction? Is there a genuine business for bringing back extinct animals? - There are also scientists making hybrids by injecting extinct animal DNA into modern animals. Recently they made woolly mice. - But would our atmosphere sustain dinosaur life, considering there was more oxygen back then? - At the remarkable age of 15, you began doing things that many would consider grown-up. I'm just curious as to how you went about attacking things that you simply felt like attacking. There are some people who wonder about stuff but don't necessarily know where to begin. How did you get so emboldened, if you can recall what that felt like? - I am curious about the "health trackers" you currently use (without revealing anything too personal!). I see at the time, you used a Fitbit Charge 2 and ServiceConnect, etc. Do you still use these, or have you switched to an Apple Watch etc.? Asking because I love your idea of tracking all kinds of health data, and I especially agree that automated is best. - Going back to your answer to my question about AI agents, which I agree that most websites will be used for LLMs instead of humans, should Wolfram|Alpha's next product be like Alexa—perhaps called "Wolfie"? - How to build that sort of confidence, then? What if I overthink at all times? How to challenge if I'm old already? - Should my next venture be based on an intellectual curiosity that might develop into something organically or a big ambition? - Do you think someone will come up with an internal fitness tracker which would be more accurate? - Is capital becoming more free to take risks or more constrained because of complexity of high-earning businesses? - How do you deal with real exogenous risks (i.e. global pandemic), with respect to innovation and commercialization thereof? - What are some early finance tips and tricks to teach kids to prepare them for the future? - I feel like I became a friend with ChatGPT—is it healthy? - ChatGPT and my daily-driver LLMs definitely know and remember more about me than I do myself at this point! - That seems a great idea. In the "Computational X" program, why not something to teach financial literacy and key financial math (compounding etc.), notably for kids, in interactive forms? - When designing humanoid robots, what do you think is a key component design of them?
In the previous excerpt from my conversation with Stephen Wolfram, I asked him how I can remain a single, coherent, persistent consciousness in a branching universe.In this excerpt, we went deeper into this question. As a conscious observer, I have a single thread of experience. So if the universe branches into many timelines, why don't I branch into many versions of me?Stephen's answer touched on many profound aspects of the Wolfram model.He started with the failure of the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics to consider the possibility that different branches of history can merge, in other words, come back together again. This failure is rooted in assumption that the universe is continuous; as soon as we start thinking of the universe as discrete, such merging seems not only possible, but inevitable.He went on to consider the concept of causal invariance, the idea that it doesn't matter which of countless similar paths you take through the multiway graph, you end up in the same place. In the Ruliad, he said, causal invariance is inevitable.Then we got to the core of the concept of the observer. According to Stephen Wolfram, an observer equivalences many different states and experiences the aggregate of these states.I did not expect Stephen's next move, to apply the concept of aggregation not just to observers, but to the universe itself.He made the profound proposal that in the Wolfram model of physics, in addition to the computation of the hypergraph through the application of rules, there's a process of aggregation of possible paths through the multiway graph to weave the future.—Stephen WolframStephen WolframThe Wolfram Physics ProjectWolfram InstituteWolfram Institute Community DiscordConcepts mentioned by StephenMany Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanicsComputational irreducibilityCausal invarianceThe RuliadSequentializationEquivalencing—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.
This week Carter and Nathan read Donella Meadows' Thinking in Systems. A foundational primer on systems thinking, the book explores how stocks, flows, feedback loops, and leverage points shape everything from ecosystems to organizations. Join them as they discuss how systems thinking applies to software engineering, the hidden structures behind burnout and tech debt, and how to make high-leverage changes in complex systems.-- Books Mentioned in this Episode --Note: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.----------------------------------------------------------Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows https://amzn.to/4cMB35k (paid link)Tidy First?: A Personal Exercise in Empirical Software Design by Kent Beck https://amzn.to/3RoB9pR (paid link)Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowlerhttps://amzn.to/43Wqk5Q (paid link)Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach by Mark Richards and Neal Fordhttps://amzn.to/3Y7CNjk (paid link)One Nation Under Blackmail, Vol. 1: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein by Whitney Alyse Webbhttps://amzn.to/3RsMt4f (paid link)Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newporthttps://amzn.to/3EH8MAe (paid link)The Software Engineer's Guidebook: Navigating Senior, Tech Lead, and Staff Engineer Positions at Tech Companies and Startups by Gergely Oroszhttps://amzn.to/3ExwPSa (paid link)What Is ChatGPT Doing ... and Why Does It Work? by Stephen Wolfram https://amzn.to/4iuSUim (paid link)----------------00:00 Intro 01:41 About the Book03:43 Thoughts on the Book08:07 Covering the Foundations and Defining Terms16:36 Feedback loops22:31 Overconfidence and why models lead us astray.35:56 Paradigms and Framing49:30 Leverage Points01:02:04 Final Thoughts----------------Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5kj6DLCEWR5nHShlSYJI5LApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/book-overflow/id1745257325X: https://x.com/bookoverflowpodCarter on X: https://x.com/cartermorganNathan's Functionally Imperative: www.functionallyimperative.com----------------Book Overflow is a podcast for software engineers, by software engineers dedicated to improving our craft by reading the best technical books in the world. Join Carter Morgan and Nathan Toups as they read and discuss a new technical book each week!The full book schedule and links to every major podcast player can be found at https://www.bookoverflow.io
As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe What if you had a thousand doctors working for you 24/7, at virtually no cost? In this episode of Theories of Everything, a panel of leading AI and medical experts explores how “medical swarms” of intelligent agents could revolutionize healthcare, making personalized, concierge-level treatment accessible to all. This isn't science fiction, it's the near future and it will change everyone's life. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/SpotifyTOE Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join Links Mentioned: • Ekkolapto: https://www.ekkolapto.org/polymath • Ekkolapto's Longevity Hackathon: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy5dPSW_KkniuHpoLwlzkYcxhxn50Mn0T • William Hahn's lab: https://mpcrlab.com/ • Michael Levin's presentation at ekkolapto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exdz2HKP7u0 • Gil Blander's InsideTracker (website): https://blog.insidetracker.com/ • Dan Elton's website: https://www.moreisdifferent.com/ • FAU's Sandbox: https://www.fau.edu/sandbox/ • Will Hahn on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr4R7eh5f_M&t=1s • Will Hahn's in-person interview on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fkg0uTA3qU • Michael Levin on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8iFtaltX-s • Stephen Wolfram on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRlQQw0d-4 • Neil Turok's lecture on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gwhqmPqRl4&list=PLZ7ikzmc6zlOYgTu7P4nfjYkv3mkikyBa&index=13 • Robin Hanson on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEomfUU4PDs • Tyler Goldstein (YouTube): http://www.youtube.com/@theoryofeveryone GO TO THIS MAN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL. HE HELPED WITH THE CAMERA WORK IMPROMPTU AND ALSO HAS A FANTASTIC CHANNEL ANALYZING THEORIES. THANK YOU, TYLER! • Joscha Bach on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MNBxfrmfmI • Manolis Kellis on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g56lxZwnaqg • Geoffrey Hinton on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_DUft-BdIE Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 4:43 A New Approach to Healthcare 5:33 AI in Medical Imaging 7:40 Cognitive Models 11:09 Education in Medicine 23:02 Exploring the Boundaries of AI 32:04 The Future of AI in Medicine 37:20 Swarming Agents 41:49 The Ethics of AI in Healthcare 45:17 AI into Clinical Practice 55:58 Preparing for an AI-Driven Future 1:15:03 The Human Element in Medicine 1:17:19 Emotional Intelligence in AI 1:20:11 Unified Theory in Medicine 1:21:31 Conclusion Support TOE on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
I'm back, baby. I've been away traveling for podcasts and am excited to bring you new ones with Michael Levin, William Hahn, Robin Hanson, and Emily Riehl, coming up shortly. They're already recorded. I've been recovering from a terrible flu but pushed through it to bring you today's episode with Urs Schreiber. This one is quite mind-blowing. It's quite hairy mathematics, something called higher category theory, and how using this math (which examines the structure of structure) allows one manner of finding "something" from "nothing." Here, "nothing" means the empty set, and "something" is defined as fermions and even 11D supergravity. It's the first time this material has been presented in this manner. Enjoy. NOTE: Link to technical details are here from Urs Schreiber: https://ncatlab.org/schreiber/show/Peri+Pantheorias As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/SpotifyTOE Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join Links Mentioned: - nLab website: https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/HomePage - Paper on category theory: https://people.math.osu.edu/cogdell.1/6112-Eilenberg&MacLane-www.pdf - “Higher Topos Theory for Physics” (Urs's talk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD20W6vxMI4 - “Higher Topos Theory for Physics” (Urs's paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.11026 - Stephen Wolfram on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRlQQw0d-4 - Feynman's thesis: https://faculty.washington.edu/seattle/physics541/2012-path-integrals/thesis.pdf - Differential cohomology in a cohesive ∞-topos (Urs's paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1310.7930 - M-Theory from the Superpoint (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1702.01774 - Character Map in Non-Abelian Cohomology, The: Twisted, Differential, and Generalized (textbook): https://amzn.to/4bFuz7H - TOE's String Theory Iceberg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4PdPnQuwjY Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 01:27 The Creation of nLab 04:36 Philosophy Meets Physics 07:55 The Role of Mathematical Language 09:32 Emergence from Nothing 16:25 Towards a Theory of Everything 22:21 The Problem with Modern Physics 25:31 Diving into Category Theory 35:30 Understanding Adjunctions 41:46 The Significance of Duality 52:54 Exploring Toposes 1:14:20 The UNEDA Lemma and Generalized Spaces 1:16:37 Charts in Physics 1:20:55 Introduction to Infinitesimal Disks 1:23:56 The Emergence of Supergeometry 1:27:33 Transitioning to Gauge Theories 1:28:11 Exploring Singularities in Physics 1:32:50 The Role of Superformal Spaces 1:36:44 Functors and Their Implications 1:40:51 From Nothing to Emergent Structures 1:43:04 Hegel's Influence on Modern Physics 1:54:07 Discovering Higher-Dimensional Structures 1:56:30 The Path to 11-Dimensional Supergravity 1:57:21 Universal Central Extensions 2:03:21 The Journey to M-Theory 2:11:19 Globalizing the Structure of Supergravity 2:15:36 Understanding Global Charges in Physics 2:23:31 Dirac's Insights into Gauge Potentials 2:30:21 The Quest for Non-Perturbative Physics 2:39:04 Conclusion Support TOE on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs #science #theoreticalphysics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: What, exactly, is an "AI agent"? "Agentic"? It seems like nobody knows what those words actually mean today. - Can you tell us about the future of media/information consumption? Will we become a society of "AI summaries" as our main form of information gathering? - Before AI summaries, there were encyclopedias and textbooks and CliffsNotes and such, and while they were useful and convenient, they never became de facto. - When will we get the first AI/robot news reporter? I see these being useful in cases of dangerous live broadcasting like hurricanes, to keep people up to date. - How far are we from LLMs generating a Stephen Wolfram–style long-form post, with similar elucidations, based on a short prompt of the key insight or topic? - When you say the teaching is delegated to the machine, are you saying that the machine is telling the student what to think about instead of just answering questions? - Can a sentient AI "understand" how humans learn? If we would delegate to them the teaching of human kids, would that be compatible with a biological point of view? - Have you ever considered entering the robotics space? A Wolfram Robotics, so to speak? - But if people delegate all calculations to the machines, then might it not happen that the machine actually learns to ask better questions than the humans can, since the machines have the experience built from the calculations and the humans don't? - What will AI not be able to do? Do you believe that something like that exists? - Tiny humans care about those questions about clouds and trees. - Robotic trade shows sound interesting. The company Boston Dynamics shows a lot of progress in the humanoid department. - Anything to say about the future of pi? (Happy Pi Day!) - Do you expect LLM development to hit significant diminishing returns within the next 2–3 years? - Automated theorem proving is so interesting. I'm trying to figure out how to make a theorem prover that demonstrably collapses a/the wavefunction. Like Stephen said; quantum LLMs.
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business, innovation, and managing life as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qaQuestions include: Is academia the only real career path if one just wants to learn and do research? - What are the risks for using AI/LLMs to do my technical writing job so I can focus on prompt engineering for the future of my field? - You've at the very least been told all sorts of interesting things that you can't currently repeat publicly. Would you ever consider writing a book or articles that would be locked for x years? - How would you guarantee an AI doesn't break an NDA accidentally? - Will "LLM psychologist" be a future career path? - Are websites receiving fewer visits due to the rise of AI agent/assistant apps that provide advice on products or services? - I, Robot by Asimov is a highly recommended, excellent collection of problems with the three laws. - Any suggestions on how to get someone to review my papers? I'm an antisocial autodidact with no academic backing. It's been impossible to get anyone to even consider my work. - If you make better rules, people will find better loopholes. - What are your thoughts on how a business specifically can do high-quality science? Companies like big AI labs seem to be doing well in this respect. Are they a good model for other companies doing science in other fields? - Historically, how much effort have great scientists with important contributions put into showing, or "marketing," their ideas? - The best teachers are the ones that ask the right questions from the students. Not telling them what to think. - How is a STEM background useful in entrepreneurship?
Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: Can you talk about lambda calculus? - Any thoughts on numerology? - My current favorite approximation to a constant (e, in this case) is (1 + 9^-4^(7*6))^3^2^85, which uses each of the digits 1–9 only once and is accurate to 18 septillion digits. - Atmospheric noise is about as random as we can get, I think. - How does IBM Watson AI stand against modern LLMs? - Would the LLM have the same reaction time to compete and press the buzzer as humans? - Is it possible someday we may predict the weather years in advance? - Well then, is weather a good random sequence? - How do you calculate wind speed if wind is just a pressure difference? - If the Earth started rotating in reverse, would that have an effect on weather? - What would it take to stabilize the weather (like using wind farms in reverse or controlling ground albedo or atmosphere composition) so that we know it exactly? - Can the Earth's tilt ever be affected? What kind of changes would this cause? - There is a rather large difference between what the ideal climate would be and what changes will mean trouble for us, given our current infrastructure. - Even the weather can't agree on what the weather should be.
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: What is the history of game theory? What are some successful and less successful applications of this theory? Can you speak about John Nash's work? Did that have any influence on your automata work? - I wonder if that code by Nash exists anywhere? It would be interesting to read. - Do you view the world as being governed by randomness or order? - Would you ever write a book intended to explain the history of the ruliad/Physics Project? - Have you studied the history of cognitive neurological abilities of scientists throughout the ages, things like long-term memory, imagination, creativity...? - Do scientists invent tools first and then look for a problem to use them on, or do they find a problem first and then invent the tool to crack it? - What is your favorite "age" of science? - How did early mechanical computers like the Babbage Engine influence modern computing? - Do you think Ada would have had more success in science and math today than she did when she was alive? - Would you say you research more of the history of people or history of their projects/research? Which do you find more useful?
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business, innovation, and managing life as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qaQuestions include: Physicists that "could code" used to be the hot commodity; is it helpful now? Seems like CS/ML people are more in demand than physicists now—why? - I find that building simple frameworks in software GREATLY helps understanding of the underlying material. Mathematics especially, but I don't think it's limited to hard sciences. - I kind of doubt my trying to self-teach cryptanalysis is going to be very transferrable. - Would you consider "science communicator" a career? What skills would be most important? - How would you think about approaching school in the age of AI and LLMS? Should I, as a university student, embrace AI and LLMs? Or should I avoid them to eliminate risks of being too dependent on technology? - I did specialized things for the government and just got laid off. There are no similar jobs in the public sector. How can/should I pivot? - Is it better to stay at one job and "move up the ladder" over decades like our parents did or adopt this trend of staying at a company for no more than three years before salary-shopping elsewhere? - Do you see any solution to the "iron law of oligarchy" on the scale of generations? - Interesting point; so how do we break the mold? I'm northeast England, a deprived region—any advice to get my children (15F, 20F) to realize their potential? - What about economic barriers to "success" and fields where someone can be successful needing expensive education? - What would you say to someone who could change the world but who lacks any resources or academic backing, so nobody wants to help?
Interview with Stephen Wolfram OpenAI now serves 400M users every week Nvidia's Profit Jumps 80 Percent as Company Rides Tech's A.I. Boom Amazon announces AI-powered Alexa Plus Artists release silent album in protest against AI using their work AI 'inspo' is everywhere. It's driving your hair stylist crazy. Nvidia launches Signs, a new AI platform to teach American Sign Language and create a validated dataset for sign language learners and ASL app developers Here's How Four Major Newsrooms Are Using AI Google sued by Chegg over AI Overviews hurting traffic and revenue Perplexity wants to reinvent the web browser with AI—but there's fierce competition Perplexity releases a censorship-free variant of Deepseek R1 To Identify Suspect in Idaho Killings, F.B.I. Used Restricted Consumer DNA Data Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggests UK broke agreement in secretly asking Apple to build iCloud backdoor Researchers accuse North Korea of $1.4 billion Bybit crypto heist Y Combinator deletes posts after a startup's "AI for sweatshops" demo goes viral Grok 3's "sexy mode" Grok 3 appears to have briefly censored unflattering mentions of Trump and Musk When Your Last Name Is Null, Nothing Works Nebraska Man Struggles to Change Daughter's Name From 'Unakite Thirteen Hotel' Touch grass Bracket City Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Stephen Wolfram Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT get.stash.com/machines canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT expressvpn.com/twit
Interview with Stephen Wolfram OpenAI now serves 400M users every week Nvidia's Profit Jumps 80 Percent as Company Rides Tech's A.I. Boom Amazon announces AI-powered Alexa Plus Artists release silent album in protest against AI using their work AI 'inspo' is everywhere. It's driving your hair stylist crazy. Nvidia launches Signs, a new AI platform to teach American Sign Language and create a validated dataset for sign language learners and ASL app developers Here's How Four Major Newsrooms Are Using AI Google sued by Chegg over AI Overviews hurting traffic and revenue Perplexity wants to reinvent the web browser with AI—but there's fierce competition Perplexity releases a censorship-free variant of Deepseek R1 To Identify Suspect in Idaho Killings, F.B.I. Used Restricted Consumer DNA Data Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggests UK broke agreement in secretly asking Apple to build iCloud backdoor Researchers accuse North Korea of $1.4 billion Bybit crypto heist Y Combinator deletes posts after a startup's "AI for sweatshops" demo goes viral Grok 3's "sexy mode" Grok 3 appears to have briefly censored unflattering mentions of Trump and Musk When Your Last Name Is Null, Nothing Works Nebraska Man Struggles to Change Daughter's Name From 'Unakite Thirteen Hotel' Touch grass Bracket City Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Stephen Wolfram Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT get.stash.com/machines canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT expressvpn.com/twit
Interview with Stephen Wolfram OpenAI now serves 400M users every week Nvidia's Profit Jumps 80 Percent as Company Rides Tech's A.I. Boom Amazon announces AI-powered Alexa Plus Artists release silent album in protest against AI using their work AI 'inspo' is everywhere. It's driving your hair stylist crazy. Nvidia launches Signs, a new AI platform to teach American Sign Language and create a validated dataset for sign language learners and ASL app developers Here's How Four Major Newsrooms Are Using AI Google sued by Chegg over AI Overviews hurting traffic and revenue Perplexity wants to reinvent the web browser with AI—but there's fierce competition Perplexity releases a censorship-free variant of Deepseek R1 To Identify Suspect in Idaho Killings, F.B.I. Used Restricted Consumer DNA Data Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggests UK broke agreement in secretly asking Apple to build iCloud backdoor Researchers accuse North Korea of $1.4 billion Bybit crypto heist Y Combinator deletes posts after a startup's "AI for sweatshops" demo goes viral Grok 3's "sexy mode" Grok 3 appears to have briefly censored unflattering mentions of Trump and Musk When Your Last Name Is Null, Nothing Works Nebraska Man Struggles to Change Daughter's Name From 'Unakite Thirteen Hotel' Touch grass Bracket City Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Stephen Wolfram Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT get.stash.com/machines canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT expressvpn.com/twit
Interview with Stephen Wolfram OpenAI now serves 400M users every week Nvidia's Profit Jumps 80 Percent as Company Rides Tech's A.I. Boom Amazon announces AI-powered Alexa Plus Artists release silent album in protest against AI using their work AI 'inspo' is everywhere. It's driving your hair stylist crazy. Nvidia launches Signs, a new AI platform to teach American Sign Language and create a validated dataset for sign language learners and ASL app developers Here's How Four Major Newsrooms Are Using AI Google sued by Chegg over AI Overviews hurting traffic and revenue Perplexity wants to reinvent the web browser with AI—but there's fierce competition Perplexity releases a censorship-free variant of Deepseek R1 To Identify Suspect in Idaho Killings, F.B.I. Used Restricted Consumer DNA Data Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggests UK broke agreement in secretly asking Apple to build iCloud backdoor Researchers accuse North Korea of $1.4 billion Bybit crypto heist Y Combinator deletes posts after a startup's "AI for sweatshops" demo goes viral Grok 3's "sexy mode" Grok 3 appears to have briefly censored unflattering mentions of Trump and Musk When Your Last Name Is Null, Nothing Works Nebraska Man Struggles to Change Daughter's Name From 'Unakite Thirteen Hotel' Touch grass Bracket City Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Stephen Wolfram Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT get.stash.com/machines canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT expressvpn.com/twit
Interview with Stephen Wolfram OpenAI now serves 400M users every week Nvidia's Profit Jumps 80 Percent as Company Rides Tech's A.I. Boom Amazon announces AI-powered Alexa Plus Artists release silent album in protest against AI using their work AI 'inspo' is everywhere. It's driving your hair stylist crazy. Nvidia launches Signs, a new AI platform to teach American Sign Language and create a validated dataset for sign language learners and ASL app developers Here's How Four Major Newsrooms Are Using AI Google sued by Chegg over AI Overviews hurting traffic and revenue Perplexity wants to reinvent the web browser with AI—but there's fierce competition Perplexity releases a censorship-free variant of Deepseek R1 To Identify Suspect in Idaho Killings, F.B.I. Used Restricted Consumer DNA Data Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggests UK broke agreement in secretly asking Apple to build iCloud backdoor Researchers accuse North Korea of $1.4 billion Bybit crypto heist Y Combinator deletes posts after a startup's "AI for sweatshops" demo goes viral Grok 3's "sexy mode" Grok 3 appears to have briefly censored unflattering mentions of Trump and Musk When Your Last Name Is Null, Nothing Works Nebraska Man Struggles to Change Daughter's Name From 'Unakite Thirteen Hotel' Touch grass Bracket City Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Stephen Wolfram Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT get.stash.com/machines canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT expressvpn.com/twit
Interview with Stephen Wolfram OpenAI now serves 400M users every week Nvidia's Profit Jumps 80 Percent as Company Rides Tech's A.I. Boom Amazon announces AI-powered Alexa Plus Artists release silent album in protest against AI using their work AI 'inspo' is everywhere. It's driving your hair stylist crazy. Nvidia launches Signs, a new AI platform to teach American Sign Language and create a validated dataset for sign language learners and ASL app developers Here's How Four Major Newsrooms Are Using AI Google sued by Chegg over AI Overviews hurting traffic and revenue Perplexity wants to reinvent the web browser with AI—but there's fierce competition Perplexity releases a censorship-free variant of Deepseek R1 To Identify Suspect in Idaho Killings, F.B.I. Used Restricted Consumer DNA Data Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggests UK broke agreement in secretly asking Apple to build iCloud backdoor Researchers accuse North Korea of $1.4 billion Bybit crypto heist Y Combinator deletes posts after a startup's "AI for sweatshops" demo goes viral Grok 3's "sexy mode" Grok 3 appears to have briefly censored unflattering mentions of Trump and Musk When Your Last Name Is Null, Nothing Works Nebraska Man Struggles to Change Daughter's Name From 'Unakite Thirteen Hotel' Touch grass Bracket City Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Stephen Wolfram Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT get.stash.com/machines canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT expressvpn.com/twit
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: - Can you talk about the history of pi? - "Pi day of the century." - Is pi still being researched today? Or is it a solidified concept? - Was there always a connection between "pi" and "pie"? - Can pi be used for data compression? - Is the only reason pi shows up more than tau because we USE pi more often? - If we used tau, it would have been 24/tau^2 instead of 6/pi^2, right? - How was your experience with slide rules? Did Leibniz or Newton use tools like a slide rule? - My 8th-grade (1983-ish) teacher didn't allow calculators, but he let me use my slide rule. - Would you rather be stuck with just a slide rule or just an abacus? - What is your favorite "artifact from the past" that you own... any interesting stories? - What's your favorite artifact from the future? - Many key ideas in computer science existed before we had the hardware to implement them (Turing's computer, neural networks in the 1940s). What ideas today do you think are ahead of their time in the same way? - Technology has progressed at an incredible rate during the last two centuries. That seems quite unusual relative to other periods in history. Are we bound to enter a new era of stagnation or regression? Or can we just keep going? - How would you think about cellular automata if you were born in, say, ancient Greece/Rome or Egypt? Or even the 1800s? - Is there a history of people discovering the concept of the ruliad and thinking about it from a different perspective (mathematical, scientific, religious or otherwise)? - I would be interested in hearing about the bug of Alan Turing. - It seems like our definitions of "science" and "technology" have evolved over the years. Are they historically the same thing?
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: In the spirit of Valentine's Day, what is the future of bionic hearts? Would this be a way to make humans more efficient? - How would you think about a world in which all of the work is done by robots and AI? - Architects using computerized/AI tools will result in less demand for architects overall, thus less people getting to do architecture. - Do you think the current methods of training and using AI/LLM are here to stay for a while, or is there a real possibility of an alternative machine learning approach appearing and being superior and more efficient? - What would you think about spiking neural nets with a new non-differentiable learning algorithm? Is it the path to smarter AI? - I read from an expert that correcting the errors in a later prompt results in more errors. It's better to go back to the original prompt. - Do you or your team actively work on the alignment issues with AI and are you worried about the next 10 years with regard to that? - Do you see a danger in the trend toward anthropomorphic AI and providing AI systems with human-like attributes? - I wonder what will happen when future AI models are trained on material that shows them the actual results of their past actions. - What are some near- and medium-term breakthroughs that could potentially make the creator a trillionaire? Off the top of my head, fusion power, far more efficient batteries or novel propulsion systems.
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business, innovation, and managing life as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qaQuestions include: What are the qualifications to be considered an "expert" in a specific field of science? - What do you think was the hardest problem that you've solved? - Does fractional calculus have any meaningful application? Should I just abandon it after PhD? - What are the implications of using hypergraphs in generative AI, or AGI? - When will we get to adopt our own robot pets? I'm allergic and would love a dog. - My Roomba is my pet. - I'd love a guard robot dog. - Did you watch the Superbowl on Sunday? - Do you think we will reach a point in technology where computers themselves will have personalities...like you go to the store and that's one of the features to consider along with GPU, CPU, etc.? - Have you ever thought about the intersection of math and sports? And how that can be applied? There's great nerdy data in sports! - Do you think there's a danger of relying too much on technology? For example, automating home locks. - There were AI companies in the 1980s? - Do you play computer games? Or did you play console games in the 80s and 90s, like Mario and Tetris? - I do think though, that playing games helps keep the brain sharp. - With AR glasses, cats will never be able to walk in front of my terminal screen ever again! - Why are we the only animals who can encapsulate ideas with words? - Do you use any smart tech to categorize or organize your home library?
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaQuestions include: When was complexity science invented? Was there a further back history than digital? - They always forget Aristarchus. - What role did category and type theory play for mathematics? - How would you think about approaching alchemical literature, knowing that it mostly employed coded language rather than being about literal transmutation into gold? - Was Newton not an alchemist? - The real secret is it's tungsten that can be turned into gold, hence the name "Wolfram Research." - Dirac, Einstein, Turing and Feynman are sitting in a room. What is the single word they all immediately agree on? - So... Dirac answered in Dirac delta function style?
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: Do you imagine humanity exploring "inner space" (i.e. virtual worlds ) more than "outer space"? - Could the spin of electrons lead to a communications system? - How would we evolve to live in space? Would we even evolve, without going into space? - Why is it you always wear the same checked shirt with the right-side collar slightly flattened...almost AI-like... - Do you think that the rules of human biology are computationally reducible, so that we eventually will be able to understand the aging of our cells? - The latest LLMs are doing very advanced mathematics. Do you think we can get AI to the point that it is solving open problems and creating new mathematics? - What is the next step for LLMs to advance? - Do a conversation with Joscha Bach please—it'll be amazing! - Have any of these LLM agents been trained on NKS? - Thoughts on this new "external reasoning" paradigm or more generally, reinforcement learning + LLMs? - How many years away do you think we are from grey goo (self-replicating nanomachines), if ever? - Are people considering (re-)training LLMs completely on scientific high-quality peer-reviewed papers?
Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: How do we know how far stars, galaxies, etc. are in space? - Can you tell about the science of gem cutting, brilliance, internal refraction, etc.? - Does that mean that objects with higher refractive indexes heat up more? - Are there any materials that slow light down enough so that we can actually see it traveling without technology helping out? - How would you describe science? And how are you staying a scientist? - Can you talk about scientific paradigms? - Interesting parallel to current research in LLMs that have so many variables and so much variability that reproducibility is extremely hard—even if it is "just" computers. - Do you think science has a problem with trying to tell nature how to behave rather than reporting on what nature is telling us? - What if you start the prompt with a script for the tech demo and ask the LLM to not go off script? - I've often been amazed at how LLMs sometimes reproduce realistic human behavior. We have seen them sometimes "lie" or try to "cover" a mistake. - What's your intuition now for what makes the best prompter? - Do you have any suggestions on coming up with ways to test hypotheses, especially ones that are more theoretical and difficult to test in the real world? How do you know when you have a good test? - How are diamonds made? - How can fermions adopt a condensate configuration, or can they?
Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: How do we know how far stars, galaxies, etc. are in space? - Can you tell about the science of gem cutting, brilliance, internal refraction, etc.? - Does that mean that objects with higher refractive indexes heat up more? - Are there any materials that slow light down enough so that we can actually see it traveling without technology helping out? - How would you describe science? And how are you staying a scientist? - Can you talk about scientific paradigms? - Interesting parallel to current research in LLMs that have so many variables and so much variability that reproducibility is extremely hard—even if it is "just" computers. - Do you think science has a problem with trying to tell nature how to behave rather than reporting on what nature is telling us? - What if you start the prompt with a script for the tech demo and ask the LLM to not go off script? - I've often been amazed at how LLMs sometimes reproduce realistic human behavior. We have seen them sometimes "lie" or try to "cover" a mistake. - What's your intuition now for what makes the best prompter? - Do you have any suggestions on coming up with ways to test hypotheses, especially ones that are more theoretical and difficult to test in the real world? How do you know when you have a good test? - How are diamonds made? - How can fermions adopt a condensate configuration, or can they?
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: How would Stephen Wolfram think about "the new world"? Would you have been surprised by the "discovery" of North and South America, or is that something that would have been supported by science? - How would you think about "Are we alone in the universe?" How has this been addressed in history? - How would you think about speculating on the history of hitchhiking, going back to ancient Rome or even the earliest cities? I would assume it would be things like ox-drawn carts, not expensive horses. - What do you know about colors and how we represent them in computing? - What do you think about the Library of Babel? Do you think that all that could ever have been written has already been written in that library and we just have to find it? - Can you tell us about the history of your father? - How far back can you trace your family history? - Have you ever done one of those DNA tests to map your genetic history? - Can you tell us about the history of your mother? - Did your parents encourage your interest in physics? Or were they hoping you would pursue a different field? - My experience with people in elite philosophy programs is that they're often terrifyingly sharp. Was that your experience as well? - Isn't the word for tungsten in German, Wolfram? - Wow, he grew up splitting time between England and Germany during the prewar years. Did he ever write about his perspective on the war?
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: How would you think about approaching science in the future? Should we accept AI's role in future science or still pursue science without the help of AI? - What do you think the future of software development will be in the next decade or so? I hear very conflicting POVs from friends. - Thoughts on LLM use in academic writing (including student theses and dissertations)? - How many new languages do we see a year these days? It wasn't long ago when I was hearing about new languages every now and then... - I'm using an LLM to help me through a book on thermodynamics right now. Nice to just throw misunderstandings at it. - LLMs can learn languages in a few hours. How would you think about making humans able to learn as fast? - Hypothetically speaking, if an AI system has access to all the images, cameras of the world, can it think through images, videos as if there is no language? Can it surpass human intelligence like that? - Interestingly, current AI models are very good at creating natural images of people, but it totally fails for electronic circuits. - How would you think about copyright, trademarks and other intellectual properties in the age of AI? - How do we know this is actually Stephen Wolfram? It could just be another Oracle trained in long answers.
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business, innovation, and managing life as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qa Questions include: How would you think about approaching a business from a science and research background vs. an entrepreneur? - Do you ever analyze your organization and its projects from the perspective of its "bottleneck(s)" and tackling those deliberately? - Do you ever delay some of the important decisions? - How do you manage to context switch between all these meetings and focused deep work sessions? - How do you best learn science, from your experience? Do you learn and internalize the structure (reach a big picture view) right away or do you focus on just gleaning "local facts" and doing problems? - If you could decide how to invest $10B for science and technology development, what would you do? Build a bigger particle accelerator, a bigger space telescope, an artificial superintelligence, etc.? - "What am I actually good at? It's kind of this start from something complicated, drill down, find the fundamentals and then do the engineering to kind of build it back up again." Can you share with us examples of this, what topic you explored and what were the steps? Knowing how Stephen operates would be a really great lesson for all. - What do you think about literature? About fiction books. What are some of your favorite books? What are some you would recommend? Do you think it is important to read fiction? - What do you think is easier, running a business or pursuing active science research? - What do you say about David Deutsch's "The Mathematicians' Misconception"? I would really like to know your thoughts. - Are there any interesting things about Version 14.2 you can share? - How would you approach teaching math? - Which do you like better: creative meetings or more technical language design? Extra question: What livestream series is your favorite? - Audiobooks allowed me to read every book I've ever wanted, multiple times, including lots of fiction. - Music is great for one's mind... including whistling and singing. - Are you more of a watch the movie adaption vs. read the book sort of person? - Would you be willing to talk a little about Jonathan Gorard and his work? - How would you think about creating a fact-checking apparatus for the future of information media? - I'd love to see another live collaboration with Jonathan. I understood almost nothing from the last one but it was amazing. - What do you think about AI's role in mathematical proofs in 2025?
Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: My question is, When we transfer an electric charge to a conducting sphere, does this charge cause some metal atoms to become ions? If they do not become ions, where do the electrons go? If they become ions, then their chemical properties must also change. Which answer is correct? - In the recent LA fires, I've seen buildings burned but plants and trees next to them just fine. Is there some physical or chemical reason why the plants are fine and buildings not? - Do photons collide? The light coming to us and the light going back to the source? - I have a question about antimatter. What do we use to contain antimatter? - How would you think about photons as a 10-year-old? What's an easy explanation? - What is antimatter anyway? Is it supposed to be something that pairs up with matter to maintain some kind of conservation law? - Are we unintentionally leaving behind a time capsule with light waves? Will scientists of the future be able to look back in time through light?
Bruce takes a deep dive into Stephen Wolfram's ideas regarding computational universality, which may go further than the Church-Turing-Deutsch thesis in that Wolfram's theories imply that all of nature could be simulated even by relatively simple systems, so even nature itself may be computational rather than something that can just be simulated on a turning machine or quantum computer. Stephen Wolfram is a renowned physicist, computer scientists, and entrepreneur. Bruce also talks about the related ideas on philosophy of computation promoted by Rudy Rucker, who is a mathematician, computer scientist, and science fiction author associated with cyberpunk genre. Both thinkers believe, rightly or wrongly, that the complexity of life and the universe can be explained by relatively simple computational rules.
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: Any progress on your understanding of Buddhist philosophy from digging into East Asian history? - How do we address the interesting ways that footnotes in history have led to knowledge? How do we address multiple issues of publication within different texts and the problems of translation? What happens to the "origin" of a text? - Do you think weird names are an advantage in academics? E.g. one of the translators of the new edition of Philosophical Investigations is P. M. S. Hacker, not something I would have remembered otherwise. - Who came up with floating-point arithmetic and what is it? - How would you think about scientific collaboration in the age before technology? How did ancient researchers/scientists collaborate with each other? - Do you think there is hidden mathematics or geometry in biblical writings or the Egyptian pyramids? - If you woke up tomorrow in ancient Greece with a pouch of gold coins, what sort of computing machines do you think you could have fabricated? - Why is there only one species of human beings; isn't that kind of absurd? - With hindsight, would "Computational Principles of Natural Philosophy" have been a good title for NKS?
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: What is your view on LLMs with regard to computational irreducibility—i.e. will they hit a computational irreducibility wall anytime soon? - Do you think there's any low-hanging fruit in computational psychology? - I'm not seeing how intuition is much different than LLMs. It's hard to identify what exact elements created an intuition. - They have made the LLM be so nice to keep one engaged. - It feels real when talking to advanced voice mode until it becomes repetitive, then at that point I feel inclined to program it to act more realistic. - I prefer the skeptical collaborator LLM personality. - Would creating consciousness in a machine and then conducting mind experiments on it be immoral? I feel like it's an autonomous entity at that point. - As AI becomes a dominant tool for information dissemination, how do we ensure that it supports critical thinking rather than passive consumption? - What role should education play in preparing individuals to critically engage with AI-generated content? - Does the use of bots and LLMs in sensitive areas—education, healthcare or governance—risk dehumanizing these vital sectors? - Are LLMs changing how people do physics now, especially on the frontier areas, say in coming up with a unified theory? - Instead of risking massive amounts of capital on projects that might fail, can we use LLMs to scope out the interesting pockets of reducibility so that greater percentages of our investments succeed? - Can you speak to how NOAA is using cellular automata to simulate weather patterns? - The way you ask LLMs questions is an art. Asking it the same thing using different words has brought back interesting results. - It would be an interesting question to know if the conceptualization of concepts by LLMs is limited by language, as scientists say the LLMs create an intermediate conceptualization. - Assuming merging human with digital AI would be possible, what do you think would be the effects in terms of "observing" reality? - Notebook Assistant IS revolutionary! Thank you, I look forward to the next iterations.
Please join my mailing list here
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
