Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

History of Science & Technology Q&A (86 videos)

Biweekly ask-me-anything about the history of science & technology

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New episode streaming Wednesday, March 5, 2025, at 3:30pm ET. Submit your questions

History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (February 5, 2025) »

1 hour 33 minutes

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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? View Less »
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History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (January 22, 2025) »

1 hour 26 minutes

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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? View Less »
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History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (January 8, 2025) »

52 minutes

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​​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? View Less »
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History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (December 4, 2024) »

1 hour 26 minutes

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​​​​What is a very interesting "big picture" discovery in your minimal model for biological evolution that answers questions about Darwin's natural selection? How does it change the narrative? So the most successful organism is you and me, because we have the potential to organize/find solutions for this überabzählbar unendliche chaos, and for that we get rewarded, according to Blaise Pascal's wager. Who created the first map? ​​​​Do you find morphological attractors in your simple models of biological evolution? There is evidence that morphospace might be like a hyporuliad, according to work by Prof. Michael Levin with planaria. ​​​​Are LLMs disconnected from humans in the ruliad? LLMs' view of reality is mostly language and texts, right? ​​​​My experience with art makes me guess illusions tend to be more of a lower/hardware level, since they aren't much subject to qualia. Do you think it's possible Egyptians had a basic light bulb (Dendera light bulb)? Were there prominent researchers in ancient civilizations who often referred to "things of the past," or were they mainly working based off of new ideas and hypotheses? ​​How much of ancient myth reflects technology, like Hephaestus making a giant rock-throwing android? ​​There's a hieroglyph that looks like a snake inside a light bulb. View Less »
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History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (November 20, 2024) »

1 hour 33 minutes

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Can you tell us anything about the history of quantum mechanics? What's the craziest historical debate between physicists about quantum theory? Thoughts on extending Kirchhoff's blackbody experiments to astronomical bodies? Was the Copenhagen interpretation a mistake, in regard to how paradoxical results were "glossed over"? Can you tell us more about Schrödinger's cat? What is actually happening? Aren't zero-point fluctuations an absolute reference frame and therefore a fatal blow to relativity? Did Feynman's work on quantum electrodynamics completely change the game, or was it just building on others? ​​What do you think about Wheeler's participatory universe idea? You got to meet all these neat people Mr. W! It's nice to hear your stories about meeting them. View Less »
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History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (November 6, 2024) »

45 minutes

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Were there any ancient travel bloggers (or the ancient equivalent) who wrote about other places they visited? Did ancient civilizations like Rome or Egypt actually communicate with each other? How did they know about each other? How influential was Babylonian science on Greek natural philosophy? How did people know how to tell time before clocks? Did scientists back in the day have rivals or "frenemies" like we see in movies? ​​Did ancient people have the equivalent of church bells to mark the time in cities? Were there any ancient or medieval "tech hacks" that we'd still find useful today? Why do you think the ancient Greeks had a fondness for abstract levels of thought? Is there an aspect of culture that enables this? How did people figure out that the Earth is round? View Less »
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