Stephen Wolfram

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Back then I definitely hadn’t internalized it, but I think what was so exciting that day was that I got a first taste of the idea that one didn’t have to be told how the world works; one could just figure it out: I didn’t yet understand quite a bit of the math in the book.

Physics 94

Physics Computer Mathematics Science 94

Stephen Wolfram

JANUARY 9, 2024

From projects that get completed within months of their conception, to projects that rely on years (and sometimes even decades) of systematic development. And all too often when I show people what’s possible, I’ll get the response “I had no idea the Wolfram Language could do that !” Our R&D portfolio is broad.

Computer 103

Computer Calculus Construction Accessibility 103

Stephen Wolfram

MARCH 18, 2022

But in our Physics Project we’ve developed a fundamentally different view of space—in which space is not just a background, but has its own elaborate composition and structure. It’s no longer something baked into our basic ideas about space. And these are the “things” (or “objects”) that we can consider to “show pure motion”.

Physics 92

Physics Computer Construction Transportation 92

Stephen Wolfram

MAY 16, 2022

See also: “ A New Kind of Science : A 15-Year View ”. From the Foundations Laid by A New Kind of Science. When A New Kind of Science was published twenty years ago I thought what it had to say was important. In a sense, A New Kind of Science defines how one can use computation to think about things.

Science 63

Science Sciences Mathematics Physics 63

Stephen Wolfram

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

And, in keeping with the idea of voodoo, there’s a particular so-called “temperature” parameter that determines how often lower-ranked words will be used, and for essay generation, it turns out that a “temperature” of 0.8 seems best. So what can we do? How did we know to try using a straight line here?

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Computer Architecture Mathematics Construction 145

Stephen Wolfram

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

The Second Law of thermodynamics is considered one of the great general principles of physical science. But it is only now—with ideas that have emerged from our Physics Project —that I think I can pull all the pieces together and finally be able to construct a proper framework to explain why—and to what extent—the Second Law is true.

Computer 92

Computer Energy Physics Construction 92

Stephen Wolfram

JUNE 16, 2022

But as I thought about it, I realized that beyond the “absurdly extreme moonshot” character of this pitch, there’s some science that I’ve done that makes it clear that it’s also fundamentally philosophically confused. But here we run into an important—if at first surprising—piece of basic science: my Principle of Computational Equivalence.

Technology 109

Technology Physics Computer Communications 109

Stephen Wolfram

AUGUST 22, 2023

An elaborate description of a wild idea. In the forty years I knew Ed Fredkin I heard countless wild ideas and colorful stories from him. But it also led him to the idea that the universe must be a giant cellular automaton—whose program he could invent. A long and colorful story. I’d politely ask for details.

Computer 67

Computer Physics Science Sciences 67

Stephen Wolfram

MARCH 15, 2023

My goal here is to explore some of the science, technology—and philosophy—of what we can expect from AIs. There’s a direct analog of this in the realm of ideas: that with time higher and higher levels of abstraction are developed, that subsume what were formerly laborious details and specifics. What will AIs be able to do?

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Computer Biology Mathematics Economics 105

Stephen Wolfram

JANUARY 31, 2023

All in all, it’s a fascinating story, that both explains what’s been believed about thermodynamics, and provides some powerful examples of the complicated dynamics of the development and acceptance of ideas. 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

MAY 25, 2021

Based on a talk at Numerous Numerosity: An interdisciplinary meeting on the notions of cardinality, ordinality and arithmetic across the sciences. Surely, one might think, to have all that technology they must have the idea of numbers. Surely they too must have the idea of numbers. What Underlies the Idea of Numbers?

Mathematics 53

Mathematics Physics Computer Algebra 53

Stephen Wolfram

MAY 13, 2022

Figuring out more and more science. And painstakingly laying out page after page of what on May 14, 2002, would be published as A New Kind of Science. I’ve written before (even in the book itself ) about the intellectual journey involved in the creation of A New Kind of Science. Developing new kinds of computational diagrams.

Science 62

Science Sciences Computer Physics 62

Stephen Wolfram

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

And it’s all based on ideas from our Physics Project —and on a fundamental correspondence between what’s happening at the lowest level in all physical processes and in expression evaluation. In our Physics Project we have called the states obtained by applying maximal collections of events at a time “ generational states ”.

Physics 108

Physics Computer Argumentation Construction 108

Stephen Wolfram

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

One might have thought it was already exciting enough for our Physics Project to be showing a path to a fundamental theory of physics and a fundamental description of how our physical universe works. For three hundred years the mathematical paradigm was the state of the art in theoretical science—and immense progress was made using it.

Science 65

Science Sciences Physics Mathematics 65

Stephen Wolfram

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Multiway systems have a central role in our Physics Project , particularly in connection with quantum mechanics. The idea is that every cell in a terminal cluster must have neighbors that don’t allow further growth. But in a multiway system , there can be many possible next states—and thus many possible paths of history.

Physics 87

Physics Construction Equality Science 87

Stephen Wolfram

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

One might have thought it was already exciting enough for our Physics Project to be showing a path to a fundamental theory of physics and a fundamental description of how our physical universe works. For three hundred years the mathematical paradigm was the state of the art in theoretical science—and immense progress was made using it.

Physics 64

Physics Science Sciences Mathematics 64

Stephen Wolfram

MAY 17, 2021

In preparation for a conference entitled “ Distributed Consensus with Cellular Automata & Related Systems ” that we’re organizing with NKN (= “New Kind of Network”) I decided to explore the problem of distributed consensus using methods from A New Kind of Science (yes, NKN “rhymes” with NKS) as well as from the Wolfram Physics Project.

Computer 52

Computer Achievement Mathematics Physics 52

Stephen Wolfram

JUNE 8, 2022

Multicomputation is one of the core ideas of the Wolfram Physics Project —and in particular is at the heart of our emerging understanding of quantum mechanics. But how can one get an intuition for what is initially the rather abstract idea of multicomputation ? But the idea of multicomputation provides a link.

Physics 71

Physics Computer Construction Equality 71

Stephen Wolfram

MAY 20, 2021

It’s hard to believe we’ve been doing this for 35 years, building a taller and taller tower of ideas and technology that allow us to reach ever further. Sometimes the result involves explicit mathematical functions: &#10005. TickDirection. GraphLayers. SlideShowVideo. QuestionObject. ProgressReporting. So in Version 12.3

Computer 52

Computer Construction Physics Technology 52