History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (September 20, 2023) »
1 hour 19 minutes
✕ close
Stephen Wolfram Livestreams
History of Science & Technology Q&A (72 videos)
Biweekly ask-me-anything about the history of science & technology
New episode streaming Wednesday, May 1, at 3:30pm ET. Submit your questions
History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (August 30, 2023) »
1 hour 38 minutes
✕ close
Do you believe we had an exploration age? Sometimes the hype feels exponential, but maybe it's just linear. What are your thoughts?
When was it that we learned about weather being essentially mathematics and physics, which could be utilized to create weapons that can control weather and weather conditions?
Are you aware of any efforts (past or present) to use nature to understand mathematics instead of the other way around?
Happy belated birthday! Anything notable to say about the history of Stephen Wolfram? What is the history of naming mathematical terms? How has this branched off into other areas of naming?
The major reason Greek is overused in science is the fact that ancient Greek vocabulary literally has a word for everything.
Which is better, autobiographies or biographies? Which gives a better historical record of a person? View Less »
History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (August 16, 2023) »
1 hour 23 minutes
✕ close
Do you know the history of the invention of optical character recognition (OCR)?
With recent developments, can you talk about the history of theories of extraterrestrial life and the search for it?
Who do you think is the most undervalued scientist in the last one hundred years? Someone who has contributed a great deal to society but has largely gone unnoticed by the public eye?
Why were elite physicists (and others) reluctant to embrace computers?
I saw an interview with Ed Fredkin where he explained how he tried to teach Richard Feynman to use a Commodore PET, I think it was.
"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" – Feynman
Didn't he [Feynman] end up causing a hubbub at Los Alamos because he was personally repairing calculators/computers, rather than the IBM person?
In the early to mid-1960s, the Soviet Union was very seriously considering what would have been a sort of proto-internet. Do you know anything about this?
How do you think kids today would react if they were suddenly teleported 40 years into the past?
Have aliens always been referred to as "aliens", or did they have another name in history?
Have there been any observable changes to planets during human life on Earth?
There's a weird Catholic history of discussing ETs that are neither human nor angel: a theoretical theological field called "exotheology."
What is the oldest book that you actually use and is not a museum piece? View Less »
History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (August 2, 2023) »
1 hour 10 minutes
✕ close
Do we know what the first piece of technology was?
If Alan Turing had not died at age 41, what might he have worked on during the remainder of his life?
What if von Neumann lived longer? Would computation and cellular automata have any potential?
Who was the first who used statistics to predict something?
Having recently watched the Oppenheimer film and seen portrayed there Einstein, Gödel and Oppenheimer at this small lake, I realized that there have barely been any relevant theoretical insights in the last few decades, especially compared to about one hundred years ago. What does this mean for the science of the next hundred years?
Where do you see applied psychology in a decade? Is the quantification of behavior and thought going to be a shift, as advertised?
Could you discuss the history of cellular automata? View Less »
History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (July 19, 2023) »
1 hour 37 minutes
✕ close
History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (June 7, 2023) »
1 hour 9 minutes
✕ close
How did scientific disciplines originate and evolve through the centuries?
Do you think Apple's new VR headset will be much different than previous releases of other VR headsets? What do past releases of similar products predict?
VR kinda reminds me of video game systems. Your product may be fantastic, but if the content/software isn't up to snuff, it's probably going to fail.
These glasses and headsets need to be comfy and miniaturized to become suitable for everyday use.
What are use cases in education for these new headsets?
Perhaps AI can be used to translate existing educational material into VR-suitable content. View Less »