History of Science & Technology Q&A (May 7, 2025)

The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

#Summer School #Wolfram Research #Future Trends #Tech

17:27

Why do so many of us get nervous when public speaking? Communication expert Lawrence Bernstein says the key to dealing with the pressure is as simple as having a casual chat. He introduces the "coffee shop test" as a way to help you overcome nerves, connect with your audience and deliver a message that truly resonates. After the talk, Modupe explains a similar approach in academia called the "Grandma test," and how public speaking can be as simple as a conversation with grandma. Want to help shape TED’s shows going forward? Fill out our survey ! Become a TED Member today at ted.com/join Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

26 days ago 1:21:29

MP3•Episode home

Topics: Studying the history of science - Contradictions and accuracy in historical research - History of memory research - Planck's constant

479 episodes

History of Science & Technology Q&A (May 7, 2025)

The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

191 subscribers

published 26 days ago

MP3•Episode home

Topics: Studying the history of science - Contradictions and accuracy in historical research - History of memory research - Planck's constant

479 episodes

#Summer School #Wolfram Research #Future Trends #Tech

All episodes

1
What If We Had Bigger Brains? Imagining Minds beyond Ours 1:54:38

7 days ago1:54:38

1:54:38

Stephen reads a recent blog from https://writings.stephenwolfram.com and then answers questions live from his viewers. Read the blog along with Stephen https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2025/05/what-if-we-had-bigger-brains-imagining-minds-beyond-ours/ Watch the original livestream on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qUIj_t-YbIk…

1
Stephen Wolfram on Observer Theory 1:48:38

7 days ago1:48:38

1:48:38

Stephen reads a blog from https://writings.stephenwolfram.com and then answers questions live from his viewers. Read the blog along with Stephen: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/12/observer-theory/ Watch the original livestream on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qm3Y6qxdOwM

1
Future of Science and Technology Q&A (May 16, 2025) 1:11:48

14 days ago1:11:48

1:11:48

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 Topics discussed: Copyright and creative ownership in an AI world - AI built into personal systems - Data scraping, consent and privacy tradeoffs - AI roles in the real world - AI and the future of teaching and learning - First encounters with computers…

1
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [May 9, 2025] 1:09:05

15 days ago1:09:05

1:09:05

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 Topics: Conscious experience and perception - Brain structure and sensory extension - Brain manipulation and individuality - Consciousness and artificial systems - Computational theory and the brain…

1
Business, Innovation and Managing Life (May 14, 2025) 1:28:44

15 days ago1:28:44

1:28:44

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 Topics discussed: Building companies that do real science - New frontiers in science, complex systems and generative art - Risks of algorithmic trading and LLMs in finance - Balancing science and profits - Blockchain ideas that aren't just buzzwords…

1
History of Science & Technology Q&A (May 7, 2025) 1:21:29

26 days ago1:21:29

1:21:29

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 Topics: Studying the history of science - Contradictions and accuracy in historical research - History of memory research - Planck's constant…

1
Future of Science and Technology Q&A (May 2, 2025) 1:10:14

26 days ago1:10:14

1:10:14

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 Topics discussed: Fusion energy and nuclear fuel design - AI reasoning, learning and scientific roles - Mathematics, computation and physical reality - Jobs and fields at risk from AI - Philosophy of knowledge and future roles…

1
Business, Innovation and Managing Life (April 30, 2025) 1:13:27

26 days ago1:13:27

1:13:27

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 Topics discussed: Starting and funding a biotech company - Thinking clearly and building ideas from scratch - Getting better at asking questions - Is college still worth it? - The future of remote workspaces - Words, language and how we talk.…

1
History of Science & Technology Q&A (April 23, 2025) 1:24:04

26 days ago1:24:04

1:24:04

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: Do you know anything about the history of vaccines? When was the first vaccine developed and for what? - Isn't some important part of how vaccines were discovered completely lost to history? - When was the crucial importance of epigenetics discovered or realized? - What have been your interactions with early-day or notable biotech people & companies (Genentech etc.) and interplay between your own projects/techs and their development if any? - I had no idea Alan Turing was the progenitor of morphogenesis!…

1
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [April 18, 2025] 1:21:53

26 days ago1:21:53

1:21:53

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: Books have been relatively unchanged—would you say that's a "technology" that has been mastered? - My son asks: Given there's a max amount of information you can store in a given region of space, how can we simulate complex systems (like brains or universes) without exceeding physical limits? - We're taught science discovers truth through observation and experiment. But in practice, I see science building mathematical models that work—sometimes treated as exact reality. How do you, as a scientist, separate calculation tools from physical truth in your actual work? Where does experience draw that line? - What lessons can we learn from the evolution of flight? Beyond the mechanics, Dawkins reflects In the book Flights of Fancy on the broader implications of flight evolution, considering what it reveals about natural selection, adaptation and the interconnectedness of life.…

1
Future of Science and Technology Q&A (April 11, 2025) 1:12:46

26 days ago1:12:46

1:12:46

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: What is your view on photonic computing? - The Platonic solids have fascinated humans like us for years. Do you think the exploration of the four-dimensional hyper-Platonic solids may be useful? - Do you think there'll be, in the short-to-mid-term future, an AI architecture that manages to synthesize mental images to the level most humans do (mainly visual-spatial)? - Have you come across the synthetic biology field, e.g. biological computer chips, Neuralink? What is your opinion on such fields in science and the future? - Do you think training AI for generative video will end up with an internal model of physics?…

1
Business, Innovation and Managing Life (April 9, 2025) 1:23:08

5 weeks ago1:23:08

1:23:08

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: Did you see the recent news about the dire wolves coming back from extinction? Is there a genuine business for bringing back extinct animals? - There are also scientists making hybrids by injecting extinct animal DNA into modern animals. Recently they made woolly mice. - But would our atmosphere sustain dinosaur life, considering there was more oxygen back then? - At the remarkable age of 15, you began doing things that many would consider grown-up. I'm just curious as to how you went about attacking things that you simply felt like attacking. There are some people who wonder about stuff but don't necessarily know where to begin. How did you get so emboldened, if you can recall what that felt like? - I am curious about the "health trackers" you currently use (without revealing anything too personal!). I see at the time, you used a Fitbit Charge 2 and ServiceConnect, etc. Do you still use these, or have you switched to an Apple Watch etc.? Asking because I love your idea of tracking all kinds of health data, and I especially agree that automated is best. - Going back to your answer to my question about AI agents, which I agree that most websites will be used for LLMs instead of humans, should Wolfram|Alpha's next product be like Alexa—perhaps called "Wolfie"? - How to build that sort of confidence, then? What if I overthink at all times? How to challenge if I'm old already? - Should my next venture be based on an intellectual curiosity that might develop into something organically or a big ambition? - Do you think someone will come up with an internal fitness tracker which would be more accurate? - Is capital becoming more free to take risks or more constrained because of complexity of high-earning businesses? - How do you deal with real exogenous risks (i.e. global pandemic), with respect to innovation and commercialization thereof? - What are some early finance tips and tricks to teach kids to prepare them for the future? - I feel like I became a friend with ChatGPT—is it healthy? - ChatGPT and my daily-driver LLMs definitely know and remember more about me than I do myself at this point! - That seems a great idea. In the "Computational X" program, why not something to teach financial literacy and key financial math (compounding etc.), notably for kids, in interactive forms? - When designing humanoid robots, what do you think is a key component design of them?…

1
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [April 4, 2025] 1:19:39

5 weeks ago1:19:39

1:19:39

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: How would you, Stephen Wolfram, think about replacing textbooks in education? What are some better tools for the classroom? - Can you teach us how to be scientists? What's the first step? - Intellectual curiosity is required to be a good scientist. And moral character, to stand by what you find, even if controversial. - If you can explain it in simple terms, you understand it. - I wanted to be a scientist as a kid, but I was actively discouraged from doing that. What would you tell to a kid to encourage them? - How will new technology and especially GenAI change our education, and what role should parents play during this crucial transition? - Do you think it would be [good] to make some infrastructures to think more creatively, e.g. logging your thoughts and trying to dissect your mental models, etc.? - In my experience, the kids that should become scientists start asking, "How do we know that?" early on. And for most adults (especially teachers!), that is the hardest question. - I heard that physicists still don't understand how friction works. Is that true? - How would you answer where this universe gets its "expanding substance" from? - Would you be open to the possibility of other mathematics than the one we use now? Would be happy to hear your thoughts on this subject. - Do you think that the emergence of AI in our lives marks the end of curiosity, or the beginning of an era where curiosity will grow even greater because it will be satisfied? - What effect do you think wide-scale adoption of LLMs will have on the boundary of the knowable? - How do you feel about integrating 3D models, animations, AI... overall media, to learning science? For example, having as output a 3D model and animation of flight path instead of just numbers and plain text on paper? - How would you think about encryption in the age of AI and LLMs? It seems like they would be able to pick up the patterns with ease once exposed. - Is it possible to build a compact mechanical SHA256 encryption device that will be resistant to solar flares?…

1
History of Science & Technology Q&A (April 2, 2025) 38:48

5 weeks ago38:48

38:48

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: Is there much history on scientists (well known or not) starting companies? - If Leibniz was around today, where do you think he would be working, what would he be doing if he was not in academia? - Any interesting suggestions for history to research? - What's the history of walking meetings? Were there notable practitioners before you? - Was the first GUI+mouse+keyboard predictable beforehand or was it a surprise at the time?…

1
Future of Science and Technology Q&A (March 28, 2025) 1:26:53

5 weeks ago1:26:53