The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: Can you tell us anything about the history of quantum mechanics? - What's the craziest historical debate between physicists about quantum theory? - Thoughts on extending Kirchhoff's blackbody experiments to astronomical bodies? - Was the Copenhagen interpretation a mistake, in regard to how paradoxical results were "glossed over"? - Can you tell us more about Schrödinger's cat? What is actually happening? - Aren't zero-point fluctuations an absolute reference frame and therefore a fatal blow to relativity? - Did Feynman's work on quantum electrodynamics completely change the game, or was it just building on others? - ​​What do you think about Wheeler's participatory universe idea? - You got to meet all these neat people Mr. W! It's nice to hear your stories about meeting them.

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: In class, we learned that light behaves like both a wave and a particle. How is that even possible? - My teacher said there's no "up" or "down" in space. Why is that, and how do astronauts navigate? - Is the universe as small as it is big? - When will we reach the physical computer chip size limit? I heard in two, three years. I also heard that quantum computer chips are still far away. Is this true? Can you elaborate on it? - How do you expect propagation of light in your model to work out? Will you get frequency-dependent propagation like in a normal elastic solid or independent propagation? - If light has no mass, how can gravity, like from a black hole, pull it in? Doesn't that break the rules?

Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business, innovation, and managing life as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qa Questions include: How long should someone expect to wait before a new business becomes profitable? - In your personal/professional journey, what are the important things that you learned the hard way? - ​​Can you elaborate on some of the unique talents within your team? Perhaps extremely smart or methodical/disciplined people? - Can you tell us about any exciting projects you're working on right now? - What do you think about self-driving? Do you think Tesla's approach without LIDAR has legs or do you think the Google Waymo hardware-intense approach is more promising? - Any tips for building a strong customer base from scratch? - What's the best way to figure out pricing for a new product or service? - With your work on Wolfram|Alpha and other projects, you've brought complex computational abilities to the general public in accessible ways. What were some of the challenges in making such powerful tools user friendly, and how do you think accessibility to high-level technology will shape industries in the future? - If the CEO himself heavily uses the product, you know it's something special. - Stephen, how do you personally define innovation? What makes something truly innovative instead of just a small improvement? - How important are critiques? Which do you find more valuable: positive or negative feedback? - I like real feedback. Pick it apart—that helps in fixing problems/strengthen whatever it is. - I've been rewatching the first hour of your interview with Yudkowsky since yesterday... do you enjoy those types of interactions often? - How do you balance maintaining the integrity of your original idea while incorporating customer feedback, which is often influenced by their familiarity with previous, incomparable solutions? - Do you have a favorite interview/podcast/speech that you've done? Or one that you were most proud of? - Are you aware that with the weekly livestreams, you basically invented THE PERFECT brain workout? - Is there a topic or question you wish more podcast hosts would ask you about that they often overlook? - What is something surprising people may not know about your "day job"? - You have frequently written about your vast digital archive. What tool do you use for indexing and searching? What other tools have you used or considered in the past and what is your opinion about them? With the improving LLMs and RAG, how do you think searching and indexing will change?

Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: Do you think AI will ever actually "understand" things like humans do? - Do you think we'll ever understand everything about the universe, or will there always be mysteries? - ​​If there are aliens, they probably have AI, right? - ​​Do you think that the aging process is something "programmed" the same way as the developmental process, or we just have wear and tear more like a car, or something else? - I'm a big fan of the game Cyberpunk 2077, which revolves around the idea of futuristic technology and digital consciousness. Do you think humans being able to digitize their mind or soul would be beneficial to our progression? - Recently, in my job, I've been processing semi-corrupt data from 50-year-old magnetic tape, and we're having to decide on the best way to handle the various types of corruption. What are your thoughts on the present and future of information/data storage and preservation given the sheer volume and the "humidity and mold" that threaten modern digital storage? - If parts of the brain are removed in stages (rather than all at once) and the digital implants are properly synced with the remaining brain parts between each stage, wouldn't this solve the "is it me or not me" problem? - Questions about preservation of things. ​​- I wonder how hungry you would be after waking up after being frozen for 500 years. - Do we know if all human thinking works the same way?