Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others (155 videos)

Weekly ask-me-anything about science & technology

New episode streaming Friday, February 7, at 3:30pm ET. Submit your questions

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 29] »

2 hours 3 minutes

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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)? 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? 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? View Less »

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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 28] »

1 hour 27 minutes

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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 about the movie The Matrix? 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?? View Less »

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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 27] »

1 hour 56 minutes

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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? View Less »

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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 26] »

2 hours 5 minutes

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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? (for context, I'm a first-year university student who takes both subjects this year and it's possible to complete a degree with both as majors (and Stats) in 4 years) How can protons be perfectly spherical while also being composed of three quarks? Much like yourself I went to a local-ish good university studying mathematics (not cs). so do you have any tips on getting ahead of my class and into research? View Less »

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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 25] »

1 hour 29 minutes

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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? View Less »

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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 24] »

1 hour 32 minutes

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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? As 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? View Less »

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