The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

History of Science & Technology Q&A (March 9, 2022)


Listen Later

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: What is the history of "infinity" in mathematics, or in science in general? - I would like to see a differentiation between eternity and infinity. ​- Can you talk about the history of the "elementary length"? What have people believed to be the smallest possible length, and what events have changed this belief? - If space is discrete, does this mean that the fundamental constants are rational numbers? If the fundamental constants were real numbers, couldn't you encode arbitrary amounts of information into your theory, hiding the complexity in these constants? - ​​At what stage in history did the idea of extraterrestrial alien life start to be entertained? Is this a relatively recent phenomenon, or was it a thing even in ancient Greek philosophy? - When did we first realize that we only see the same side of the Moon?​ - What belief systems/groups of people have historically believed in a fundamentally discrete universe? ​- Why do you think the distribution of new discoveries is so random? See, for example, Nassim Taleb's example of 6,000 years between the wheel and wheels on a suitcase, for example.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Stephen Wolfram PodcastBy Wolfram Research

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

58 ratings


More shows like The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

View all
EconTalk by Russ Roberts

EconTalk

4,221 Listeners

Closer To Truth by Closer To Truth

Closer To Truth

243 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,030 Listeners

Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Conversations with Tyler

2,388 Listeners

The Quanta Podcast by Quanta Magazine

The Quanta Podcast

496 Listeners

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating by Big Bang Productions Inc.

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

1,042 Listeners

Physics World Weekly Podcast by Physics World

Physics World Weekly Podcast

78 Listeners

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas by Sean Carroll | Wondery

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

4,132 Listeners

ManifoldOne by Steve Hsu

ManifoldOne

87 Listeners

Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST) by Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

86 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

388 Listeners

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal by Theories of Everything

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

460 Listeners

The Joy of Why by Steven Strogatz, Janna Levin and Quanta Magazine

The Joy of Why

498 Listeners

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

123 Listeners

Training Data by Sequoia Capital

Training Data

40 Listeners