History of Science and Technology Q&A (April 17, 2024)

Stephen Wolfram hosts a live and unscripted Ask Me Anything about the history of science and technology for all ages. Find the playlist of Q&A's here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Originally livestreamed at:   / stephen_wolfram  

If you missed the original livestream of this episode, feel free to submit a question you would like Stephen to answer in a future Q&A livestream here: https://wolfr.am/12cczmv5J

00:00 Start stream
00:20 SW starts talking
00:31-13:01 Are there languages or logic systems we haven't yet discovered from the past?​​
13:23-17:35 Can smart keyboards help with this process of language discovery?​​
17:41-23:35 ​​Do you view mathematics as a subset of language, or the other way around?​​
23:47-35:30 How did different languages come to develop? Will we slowly move toward a universal language?​​
35:35-36:15 "Ona, also known as Selk'nam (Shelknam), is a language spoken by the Selk'nam people in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in southernmost South America." Spoken by only one person.​​
36:22-40:45 ​The distinction is the unique role of mathematics expressing and formalizing ideas in ways that transcend linguistic and cultural boundaries.​​
40:53-43:29 Language came before humans, e.g. dolphins and whales; we just scaled it up and complexified it​.
43:36-48:42 Was Shakespeare's style unique to him? Would there have been a possibility for people to speak in a more poetic language?​​
49:11-53:10 ​​I think language is closer to 1.5-dimensional, considering we have relative pronouns and other constructions that link up with previous statements, such that a 2D diagram of it can be made.​​
53:13-54:09 ​​If I want to write a short statement, I prefer English. For a detailed style, I would prefer German... which is usually longer and not as nice to read as short English text.​
54:34-58:07 Bulgarian is pronounced exactly as it is written. One of its quirks.​​
58:17-1:02:59 If LLMs are hallucinating all the time and good ones are just hallucinating correctly/accurately most of the time, does that explain how Ramanujan might have arrived at his formulas without proofs?​​
1:03:30 End Stream

Follow us on our official social media channels.

X:   / wolframresearch  
Facebook:   / wolframresearch  
Instagram:   / wolframresearch  
LinkedIn:   / wolfram-research  
Stephen Wolfram's Twitter:   / stephen_wolfram  

Contribute to the official Wolfram Community: https://community.wolfram.com/
Stay up-to-date on the latest interest at Wolfram Research through our blog: https://blog.wolfram.com/
Follow Stephen Wolfram's life, interests, and what makes him tick on his blog: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/