Stephen Wolfram, Founder & CEO of Wolfram Research, Computing the Cosmos (#041)

   Stephen Wolfram, Founder & CEO of Wolfram
Research, Creator of Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha, Author of A New
Kind of Science, discusses computational science, his new Project
to Find a Fundamental Theory of Physics, and more. Over the course
of 4 decades, Stephen Wolfram has pioneered the development &
application of computational thinking. He has been responsible for
many discoveries, inventions & innovations in science,
technology, and business. In this wide-ranging interview with Brian
Keating @DrBrianKeating , Wolfram discusses his decades
in-the-making Wolfram Physics Project, his career, his philosophy
& approach to science, his hoped-for legacy, and questions from
the audience including whether mathematical beauty matter at all,
or is it just falsifiability? We also discuss his books A New Kind
of Science (2002), Idea Makers (2016) and Adventures of a
Computational Explorer (2019). Show notes and resources available
here:  Topics discussed in this in-depth interview: The Impact
of Computers on his life 00:12:18 Prime Numbers 00:15:25 What he
thinks he’s good at doing 00:20:49 #WolframAlpha 00:21:30 The work
he and his son did on creating a language for #ArrivalMovie
00:32:38:26 The first alien intelligence is really AI! 00:38:58
thoughts on #2001ASpaceOdyssey from his blog post 00:44:50 Cellular
Automata & Complexity (1994) 00:54:50 Doom for the “Simulation
Hypothesis” Thanks to the Physics Project 1:00:00 A New Kind of
Science 01:14:54 Adventures of a Computational Explorer 02:06:39
How Steve Jobs convinced him to use ‘Mathematica’ instead of
Wolfram Omega 02:32:02 Wolfram was educated at Eton, Oxford, and
Caltech. He published his first scientific paper at the age of 15,
and received his PhD in theoretical physics from Caltech at the age
of 20. Wolfram’s early scientific work was mainly in high-energy
physics, quantum field theory & cosmology. Having started to
use computers in 1973, Wolfram rapidly became a leader in the
emerging field of scientific computing, and in 1979 he began the
construction of SMP—the first modern computer algebra system—which
he released commercially in 1981. In recogn Learn more about your
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