w00t.... Stephen Wolfram is coming today!

[gopunk]

just found out in our student newspaper, he's giving a talk

<-- going to the talk

 

[gopunk]

come home from talk... was pretty interesting. very nice guy, took the time to explain axioms and stuff to my friend after the lecture

 

[Heisenberg]

I have no doubt that he is extremely intelligent...more so than I will ever be. However, his theory about the universe just seems really out there. I don't want to say he's crazy or anything but what he says seems to be contrary to everything science has shown. Maybe I just don't understand enough about his theories.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
I have no doubt that he is extremely intelligent...more so than I will ever be. However, his theory about the universe just seems really out there. I don't want to say he's crazy or anything but what he says seems to be contrary to everything science has shown. Maybe I just don't understand enough about his theories.

mmm... could you elaborate? i didn't really see much that was contrary (i don't think it is intended to either)... though i did see potential to go beyond what current science has been able to do.

 

[Heisenberg]

Well, I don't really know. I've just read that he takes a 'computer science' approach, where everything is made up of tiny programs, which combine to produce everything from simple elements to humans. I really haven't read that much about it. So what he says is consistent with current theories and everything?

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
Well, I don't really know. I've just read that he takes a 'computer science' approach, where everything is made up of tiny programs, which combine to produce everything from simple elements to humans. I really haven't read that much about it. So what he says is consistent with current theories and everything?

well yes... there isn't much to be inconsistent about really. his book/theory/whatever isn't really an explanation for things, but as he puts it, "a model" for things. for example, right now, a lot of science uses equations and whatnot to model things, right? like we have equations to model *wink* the heisenberg uncertainty principle, and many other things. but as anybody knows, using equations to describe complex systems is not a trivial feat. if it was, then we'd be a lot further wouldn't we so his thing is basically that he thinks it is possible, better, and more efficient to start approaching such problems from his cellular automata/ cs / new kind of science approach. so he really *can't* go against science, since he isn't advocating an explanation for things, but rather a new way to look at things.

of course this is just what i gather from his lecture and the first couple chapters of his book. i can't stand the way he writes, so i didn't get any further

 

[Pastore]

Damn What did he talk about? Just his book? His model? What? God damn I would love to hear him talk... I think his book is great... You don't have to believe what he writes as truth, it just makes you look something in a different light...

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: Beast1284
Damn What did he talk about? Just his book? His model? What? God damn I would love to hear him talk... I think his book is great... You don't have to believe what he writes as truth, it just makes you look something in a different light...

his model/book. well since the book is about the model, they sort of go hand in hand he was a good speaker.... pretty funny too, he kept on saying stuff like "... and there are plans to incoperate that into mathematica ".

somebody asked him about how random rule 30 was or something and he went "well, i would hope it works well, we've been using that in mathematica as the random number generator for the last 15 years"

so you didn't have any trouble reading his book? i dunno, it just seemed a little repetitive... wish i had the ability to read through it.

 

[Pastore]

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: Beast1284
Damn What did he talk about? Just his book? His model? What? God damn I would love to hear him talk... I think his book is great... You don't have to believe what he writes as truth, it just makes you look something in a different light...

his model/book. well since the book is about the model, they sort of go hand in hand he was a good speaker.... pretty funny too, he kept on saying stuff like "... and there are plans to incoperate that into mathematica ".

somebody asked him about how random rule 30 was or something and he went "well, i would hope it works well, we've been using that in mathematica as the random number generator for the last 15 years"

so you didn't have any trouble reading his book? i dunno, it just seemed a little repetitive... wish i had the ability to read through it.

I have read about the first 15 chapters... skimming here and there... I have read enough of it to understand his rules and stuff... it is repetitive, which is why i havent read more of it... Also, you can skip around a lot in the book, its not hard to pick up at a section that sounds interesting...

 

[Martin]

damn, you lucky bitch!

I would have liked to hear him speak. I am planning to read his book over the xmas break, his ideas sound really interesting.

 

[gopunk]

one thing that kind of pisses me off is that if his ideas are accepted, by the time universities get around to doing any significant amount of work with this stuff, i'll probably be out of school already :|

 

[Pastore]

Originally posted by: gopunk
one thing that kind of pisses me off is that if his ideas are accepted, by the time universities get around to doing any significant amount of work with this stuff, i'll probably be out of school already :|

I don't think it will ever be taught along with traditional sciences... Possibly with some type of Philosophy/New Age type class, but probably not sciences as we know them today

 

[nd]

He came to UW-Madison a couple months ago. I didn't learn much new from his lecture that I didn't already know from reading about his theories on Cellular Automatons on the web.