Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We’ve got a science opportunity overload: Launching the Wolfram Institute

writings.stephenwolfram.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 376 posts

Re: We’ve got a science opportunity overload: Launching the Wolfram Institute

#31

Post by anyfactor »

ridaj wrote: post #9

The more I hear about Stephen Wolfram's schemes to name things after Stephen Wolfram, the more admirative I grow of Nicolas Bourbaki and wished he were publishing amazing math software these days.

Why didn't a group like this emerged in software?

My opinion is that you obviously don't pay for free and/or open software with money but you do pay with the fatigue of bearing the creators ideological and personal whims. Software requires maintenance and support. It is not a do it once and do it perfectly. Also let's not forget about us the users who constantly attempt to dictate the path the software is heading.

If you can take away the criticism, maintenability and support commitment, you can create Bourbaki-esque softwares. Case in point - GNU utilities like cat, ls, sed etc.

Re: We’ve got a science opportunity overload: Launching the Wolfram Institute

#32

Post by d--b »

vasco wrote: post #7

I'm not knowledgeable enough to have an opinion on the physics project, but I find it interesting how polarized HN is about it. For some people it's a whole new world that will lead to new findings, for others it seems like they compare it to them having invented a new language and acting busy "translating" everything that was already discovered to this new language and being surprised they can. Funny how even mathem…

I don’t think that’s true.

People are both extremely annoyed by the arrogance of the man and very cautious at criticizing the science he’s doing.

Since Shannon, a computational approach to fundamental physics has been appealing. But the way Wolframs maps his own obsession with cellular automata to anything is suspicious. The claims of breakthrough are also suspicious since I don’t think any if the claims have had a chance to be tested experimentally.

Re: We’ve got a science opportunity overload: Launching the Wolfram Institute

#33

Post by ginnungagap »

systemvoltage wrote: post #21
syats wrote: post #13

Let us concede that in the last 20 years, the number of mentions of "I" in his writing has decreased, and there are more mentions of "We". As much as a cellular automata, and computation in general, fan as I am, and after having read a fair amount of his work... I am still not convinced that Wolfram is not just a rich crack pot.

Let him do his thing, he supports many employees for a living, and does meaningful work occassionally. There are many people that are far more problematic for the society than Mr. Wolfram. He hasn't done any harm to anyone. Let him chill in peace.

> He hasn't done any harm to anyone.

Reading posts from former employees and plagiarism accusations (look up Matthew Cook) suggests otherwise.

I remember this being discussed on HN before as well, even though the search function is not bringing up anything.

Re: We’ve got a science opportunity overload: Launching the Wolfram Institute

#34

Post by williamstein »

anyfactor wrote: post #31
ridaj wrote: post #9

The more I hear about Stephen Wolfram's schemes to name things after Stephen Wolfram, the more admirative I grow of Nicolas Bourbaki and wished he were publishing amazing math software these days.

Why didn't a group like this emerged in software? My opinion is that you obviously don't pay for free and/or open software with money but you do pay with the fatigue of bearing the creators ideological and personal whims. Software requires maintenance and support. It is not a do it once and do it perfectly. Also let's not forget about us the users who constantly attempt to dictate the path the software is heading. If…

I tried to start a group like this for mathematical software: https://trac.sagemath.org/#AccountNamesMappedtoRealNames

Re: We’ve got a science opportunity overload: Launching the Wolfram Institute

#35

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

perihelions wrote: post #6
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #2

It's kind of sad for me. I read and read but could not get the gist of the institute. Can someone write a summary?

If you scroll down a bit, I think the 26th paragraph comes closest to lucidity: - "What will the Wolfram Institute be like? There’ll be a leadership core, which, yes, I’m signing up to head. But the main meat of the institute will be a collection of researchers and fellows, working on particular, managed projects—together with students at multiple levels from high school to graduate school. We’ll be doing open scienc…

Thanks!

His writing style reminds me of those sites that want to sell you information but won't tell you unless you "buy it today for the low price of $19.99(or whatever price)." :)

Re: We’ve got a science opportunity overload: Launching the Wolfram Institute

#36

Post by tsimionescu »

vqrs wrote: post #24
tsimionescu wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he was pretty clear that the Wolfram Institute, headed by Stephen Wolfram, has the single purpose of exploring the Wolfram Multicomputation model as a new foundation for all of science and mathematics. To do so, it is going to apply Wolfram's methods for productivity that have made Wolfram Research a successful company, and Wolfram Physics Project a successful delivery. Also of note, any major discoveries wil…

I can't tell if you're being serious or sarcastic when you say "Wolfram's clear and simple exposition style" Can you link me an example?

It is very much sarcasm on my part, but I was explicitly paraphrasing what is definitely an honest belief from the article:

"[...] whenever we manage to make a big step forward our plan is to present it to the world using the immediate and accessible approach to exposition that I’ve developed."

Re: We’ve got a science opportunity overload: Launching the Wolfram Institute

#37

Post by poulpy123 »

eternityforest wrote: post #11
perihelions wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you scroll down a bit, I think the 26th paragraph comes closest to lucidity: - "What will the Wolfram Institute be like? There’ll be a leadership core, which, yes, I’m signing up to head. But the main meat of the institute will be a collection of researchers and fellows, working on particular, managed projects—together with students at multiple levels from high school to graduate school. We’ll be doing open scienc…

That sounds amazing! I wish they'd study something like energy storage or cheap imaging mmWave radar, or portable chemical analyzers, or any of those supposedly world changing things that seem to totally vanish without a trace again whenever anyone makes a breakthrough. Hopefully it's not just this?new physics thing.

What sounds amazing ? That's just handwaving

Re: We’ve got a science opportunity overload: Launching the Wolfram Institute

#38

Post by recuter »

syats wrote: post #13

Let us concede that in the last 20 years, the number of mentions of "I" in his writing has decreased, and there are more mentions of "We". As much as a cellular automata, and computation in general, fan as I am, and after having read a fair amount of his work... I am still not convinced that Wolfram is not just a rich crack pot.

And what is wrong with that? Most of the internet is filled with poor crack pots, some of them are even here amongst us.

I'd rather be a rich dick than a poor schmuck. Pee into the wind Sir Wolfram, godspeed! Doesn't seem super different to how most grant money is awarded.

Post reply on HN