Computing Education Research Blog

NOVEMBER 26, 2021

Forsythe argued (in a 1968 article) that the most valuable parts of a scientific or technical education were facility with natural language, mathematics, and computer science. He argued that you can’t think about integral calculus the same after you learn about computational iteration. The keynotes had a similar structure and themes.

Computer Science 140

Computer Science Computer Science Sciences 140

Stephen Wolfram

MARCH 23, 2023

The whole process of “prompt engineering” feels a bit like animal wrangling: you’re trying to get ChatGPT to do what you want, but it’s hard to know just what it will take to achieve that. In the past, one might have tried to achieve this “by hand” by starting with “boilerplate” pieces, then modifying them, “gluing” them together, etc.

Computer 145

Computer Mathematics Math Achievement 145

Stephen Wolfram

JANUARY 31, 2023

But by the end of the 1800s, with the existence of molecules increasingly firmly established, the Second Law began to often be treated as an almost-mathematically-proven necessary law of physics. There were still mathematical loose ends, as well as issues such as its application to living systems and to systems involving gravity.

Energy 88

Energy Physics Argumentation Mathematics 88

Stephen Wolfram

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

This is the first of a series of pieces I’m planning in connection with the upcoming 20th anniversary of the publication of A New Kind of Science. And at first I did so in the main scientific paradigm I knew : models based on mathematics and mathematical equations. From mathematics. Mathematical physics.

Computer 55

Computer Mathematics Science Sciences 55

Stephen Wolfram

JANUARY 9, 2024

So many discoveries, so many inventions, so much achieved, so much learned. And key to everything we do is leveraging what we have already done—often taking what in earlier years was a pinnacle of technical achievement, and now using it as a routine building block to reach a level that could barely even be imagined before.

Computer 102

Computer Calculus Construction Accessibility 102

Stephen Wolfram

DECEMBER 13, 2021

the same integral could still be done, but only in terms of elliptic integrals : Mathematical Functions: A Milestone Is Reached. Special functions are in a sense a way of packaging mathematical knowledge : once you know that the solution to your equation is a Lamé function , that immediately tells you lots of mathematical things about it.

Construction 67

Construction Computer Physics Accessibility 67

Stephen Wolfram

AUGUST 22, 2023

It didn’t help that his knowledge of physics was at best spotty (and, for example, I don’t think he ever really learned calculus). I first met Ed in 1982—on an island in the Caribbean he had bought with money from taking public a tech company he’d founded. It says that “From a one-man operation [in 1962], I.I.I.

Computer 68

Computer Physics Science Sciences 68

Stephen Wolfram

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

Then we might make a mathematical guess, like that perhaps we should use a straight line as a model: We could pick different straight lines. It’s just something that’s mathematically simple, and we’re used to the fact that lots of data we measure turns out to be well fit by mathematically simple things.

Computer 145

Computer Architecture Mathematics Construction 145