WOLFRAM WANTS IT TO COMPUTE ALL OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
The article is about Stephen Wolfram, the creator of the Mathematica software, author of A New Kind of Science and designer of the analytical engine WolframAlpha.com. The article neatly summarizes Mr. Wolfram's accomplishments, which demonstrate how much a brilliant man can accomplish working outside the traditional boundaries imposed by state, corporation and academia.
My point is not about Mr. Wolfram's work, but about the cutline, and how we might read it. And my hypothesis is this: those words, and any similar phrase celebrating the broad powers of computing, are going to have a much different feel to the reader born into homes where computers were present and influential. If one was born after, say, 1995, and experienced an association with a home computer throughout the formative years, and came to know its utility and adaptability in learning, shopping, entertainment, socializing and simply exploring human knowledge, he or she will perhaps have an instinctive sympathy for ideas which champion the strength of computing. And this sympathy may be complex - not simply an optimistic observation, but psychologically deep, especially as it becomes intertwined with the unique neurobiological processes instilled by intense personal computing.
The "yeah, right" scepticism is becoming "cool. whatever." What, if anything, is lost here?
My point is not about Mr. Wolfram's work, but about the cutline, and how we might read it. And my hypothesis is this: those words, and any similar phrase celebrating the broad powers of computing, are going to have a much different feel to the reader born into homes where computers were present and influential. If one was born after, say, 1995, and experienced an association with a home computer throughout the formative years, and came to know its utility and adaptability in learning, shopping, entertainment, socializing and simply exploring human knowledge, he or she will perhaps have an instinctive sympathy for ideas which champion the strength of computing. And this sympathy may be complex - not simply an optimistic observation, but psychologically deep, especially as it becomes intertwined with the unique neurobiological processes instilled by intense personal computing.
The "yeah, right" scepticism is becoming "cool. whatever." What, if anything, is lost here?
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