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What should mathematics majors know about computing, and when should they know it?

Robert Talbert, Ph.D.

As I teach my Linear Algebra and Differential Equations class this semester, which uses more computing than ever, I'm thinking even more about these topics. If anything, over the past seven years, my feelings about the centrality of computing in the mathematics major have gotten even more entrenched.

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The Physicalization of Metamathematics and Its Implications for the Foundations of Mathematics

Stephen Wolfram

One can view a symbolic expression such as f[g[x][y, h[z]], w] as a hierarchical or tree structure , in which at every level some particular “head” (like f ) is “applied to” one or more arguments. So how about logic, or, more specifically Boolean algebra ? We’ve looked at axioms for group theory and for Boolean algebra.

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Expression Evaluation and Fundamental Physics

Stephen Wolfram

Since the standard Wolfram Language evaluator evaluates arguments first (“leftmost-innermost evaluation”), it therefore won’t terminate in this case—even though there are branches in the multiway evaluation (corresponding to “outermost evaluation”) that do terminate. As the Version 1.0

Physics 108
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Remembering the Improbable Life of Ed Fredkin (1934–2023) and His World of Ideas and Stories

Stephen Wolfram

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). “Lick” Licklider —who persuaded Ed to join BBN to “teach them about computers”. Then McCarthy started to explain ways a computer could do algebra. It was all algebra.

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Even beyond Physics: Introducing Multicomputation as a Fourth General Paradigm for Theoretical Science

Stephen Wolfram

At the level of individual events, ideas from the theory and practice of computation are useful. Events are like functions, whose “arguments” are incoming tokens, and whose output is one or more outgoing tokens. And the same issue arose for Alonzo Church’s lambda calculus (introduced around 1930).

Physics 65
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Multicomputation: A Fourth Paradigm for Theoretical Science

Stephen Wolfram

At the level of individual events, ideas from the theory and practice of computation are useful. Events are like functions, whose “arguments” are incoming tokens, and whose output is one or more outgoing tokens. And the same issue arose for Alonzo Church’s lambda calculus (introduced around 1930).

Science 64
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The Concept of the Ruliad

Stephen Wolfram

For example, we know (as I discovered in 2000) that (( b · c ) · a ) · ( b · (( b · a ) · b )) = a is the minimal axiom system for Boolean algebra , because FindEquationalProof finds a path that proves it. But what about other models of computation—like cellular automata or register machines or lambda calculus?

Physics 122