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Stephen Wolfram’s TED Talk: Computation Is Destined to Be the Defining Idea of Our Future

April 27, 2010 —
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We use this blog as a vehicle to highlight many of our big ideas and discoveries. Today we’re pleased to share with you Stephen Wolfram’s talk from the 2010 TED Conference in Long Beach, California, where he talked about the tools and methods he’s spent the last 30 years developing in his quest to explore computational knowledge.

TED, an organization devoted to bringing together the technology, entertainment, and design industries’ most innovative thinkers to present “Ideas Worth Sharing”, recently shared Stephen’s ideas with the world as a “TED Talk of the Day”. In the signature 18-minute video, Stephen discusses how his lifelong scientific pursuits led to the development of Mathematica, A New Kind of Science, and the computational knowledge engine Wolfram|Alpha. He continues, asking new questions and proposing a fourth project—discovering our physical universe through our computational universe.

“Will we find the whole of physics? I don’t know for sure. But I think at this point it’s sort of almost embarrassing not to at least try.” —Stephen Wolfram

Click to view the transcript and slides from Stephen’s talk.

9 Comments

This is the most impressive TED talk I have ever seen.. It’s absolutely brilliant! I did not realize that somebody was actually trying to do something this insane. Bravo! I will forever use this website, and tell everybody I know about it.

Posted by Steffen Hammelow-Berg April 27, 2010 at 7:57 pm

An amazing talk! Just makes you stop doing pointless things and use that time on exploring the universe..

Posted by Andrew April 28, 2010 at 5:52 pm

Mr Wolfram is a ture visionary; I was awestruck and inspired not only by his eloquent delivery but by the fascinating new way he proposes of theorizing Science. Asuming “Singularit”; its just a matter of time until his models have unfathomable consequences.

Posted by Rodolfo Rivera April 29, 2010 at 6:56 pm

Where can I find out more about Wolfram’s search for our universe in the computational one?

Posted by Eric P. May 2, 2010 at 5:21 pm

What a great Ted TED Talk. I enjoyed the complete 20 minutes. Thanks a lot for showing this video.

Posted by Schutzfolien May 3, 2010 at 8:46 am

I saw the talk on TED and decided to visit the blog as well. Truly amazing data management in real time! I was very impressed and encouraged others to view and visit as well. Thank you for sharing.

Posted by Redge May 3, 2010 at 5:15 pm

[…] to view the transcript and slides from Stephen’s talk. Permalink add this | del.icio.us | digg | reddit | […]

Meh. What’s kind of new is not science, and what’s kind of science is not new.

Posted by JeffE May 12, 2010 at 10:38 am

[…] “Can We Compute an Answer to Every Question?” highlighting Stephen Wolfram’s TED2010 talk. The story also featured an excerpt from Stephen’s “The Story of the Making of […]

Posted by Wolfram|Alpha Blog : The Story of the Making of Wolfram|Alpha January 28, 2011 at 10:41 am