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

writings.stephenwolfram.com

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

#231

Post by needlefish »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #113
DantesKite wrote: post #73

Man these are some low-quality comments. You’d think Wolfram was torturing gerbils or something. I don’t mind criticisms of my favorite thinkers. I enjoy watching someone being taken to task in the battle of ideas so to speak, but apparently something about Wolfram just rubs people the wrong way, because they seem to lose the ability to make cogent arguments after reading him. As a simple example of what a healthy di…

The web/media representation of Stephen Wolfram somehow seems (I never had a chance to know him personally so I have no idea if he even creates such an impression, let alone actually does) like he has a "huge ego". Whenever someone produces such an impression (which can often be an unfortunate coincidence, I wouldn't expect popular ideas about people to be reliably related to their actual characters), "egos" of all t…

I honestly think it is that his academic accomplishments in youth combined with the work he has done since is just triggering to people who have their identity wrapped up in being the smart kid. Since he names his companies after himself, knocking him for being "egotistical" is an easy attack to feel better about oneself for not having a PhD from Caltech at 20 with Feynman advising.

I have listened to hours of him on Lex Fridman and he doesn't come off as egotistical or arrogant in the least.

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

#232

Post by motoboi »

crispyambulance wrote: post #224
underdeserver wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem with Wolfram is that every time I hear him talk or read him, I end up spending 15-20 minutes and come out the other end confused. I studied physics in my undergrad, I have a graduate degree in math, I've shipped large features on planet-scale systems. I'm no genius, certainly nowhere close to Dr. Wolfram, but I don't think I'm far from your average HN reader in reading comprehension ability. I've read 35 p…

Wolfram deserves accolades for Mathematica. It's a magnificent achievement and he's kept his company alive and thriving and people use Wolfram (the company) tools everyday to do productive stuff. BUT... Wolfram (the man) is very much an outsider when it comes to physics. This started 20 years ago when he published a "A New Kind of Science". It was a lengthy but ultimately not useful exploration of cellular automata (…

I suppose you are not familiar with his early career as a physicist, publishing in the field since he was 15 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Wolfram#Early_career

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

#233

Post by thwayunion »

DantesKite wrote: post #73

Man these are some low-quality comments. You’d think Wolfram was torturing gerbils or something. I don’t mind criticisms of my favorite thinkers. I enjoy watching someone being taken to task in the battle of ideas so to speak, but apparently something about Wolfram just rubs people the wrong way, because they seem to lose the ability to make cogent arguments after reading him. As a simple example of what a healthy di…

IMO all of the comments about Wolfram as a topic are low quality, including this one.

The topic of the post is the "Wolfram Institute". I'm happy to see more investment in R&D, period. Good on Wolfram.

I will probably never seek out a job at the Wolfram Institute because I believe the title is true -- there is an abundance of scientific opportunity. Working on Wolfram's agenda would not be the best use of my time, in part because the Wolfram Institute likely won't have the resources or interest to exploit the scientific opportunities about which I'm most excited.

This is less a reflection on Wolfram than on the state of the world. Theoretical Physics of the sort Wolfram was imbued in his early career had its moment half a century ago, but has not produced fruit in a long time. I doubt that will change -- in part because even if all the stated problems were solved... so what? Similarly, computation systems seem to have hit a fevered pitch in the 2010s and are now approaching a plateau.

There are exciting opportunities in the life sciences, in robotics, and in AI. But the Wolfram Institute would be a bad place to work on those things, and in particular likely does not have the funding or expertise to do ground-breaking work in the life sciences.

I'm sure there are many who disagree with me, and I hope they find the Wolfram Institute to be a happy and productive place to do meaningful work.

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

#234

Post by sixQuarks »

DantesKite wrote: post #73

Man these are some low-quality comments. You’d think Wolfram was torturing gerbils or something. I don’t mind criticisms of my favorite thinkers. I enjoy watching someone being taken to task in the battle of ideas so to speak, but apparently something about Wolfram just rubs people the wrong way, because they seem to lose the ability to make cogent arguments after reading him. As a simple example of what a healthy di…

Very well put. You can replace Wolfram with Elon Musk and the same comment applies beautifully

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

#235

Post by lallysingh »

DantesKite wrote: post #73

Man these are some low-quality comments. You’d think Wolfram was torturing gerbils or something. I don’t mind criticisms of my favorite thinkers. I enjoy watching someone being taken to task in the battle of ideas so to speak, but apparently something about Wolfram just rubs people the wrong way, because they seem to lose the ability to make cogent arguments after reading him. As a simple example of what a healthy di…

Part of it is that his writing is unclear. Not the technical parts, but generally. It's long and full of clauses and often a few sentence fragments shoved together with dashes. It's just taxing to read his prose.

Combined with some bravado and deep technical jargon, the reader is forgivably resentful of the entire experience.

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

#236

Post by pmayrgundter »

morelisp wrote: post #127
yetihehe wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was once a book, "100 Authors Against Einstein"[0]. Expect opposition against everything you do. Those who are against are just typically more vocal than those who don't know yet. Those who support Wolfram typically are busy doing research and don't care about commenting, they have better things to do than answer every naysayer 1v1. I'm in the "we'll see" camp, but I don't like naysayers. [0] https://archive.or…

> Those who support Wolfram typically are busy doing research and don't care about commenting Who is doing NKS-based research these days?

That's a reasonable question.. I think it's worth considering the users of Mathematica as near or overlapping. It might be possible to go through GitHub and find the number of Mathematica projects and then categorize them to get an approximation.

Also, this is very tenuous, but I see a lot of similarity between Wolfram's automata (not this new work) and Lattice Boltzmann methods. Both have been around since the 70s/80s and it makes me wonder a little about primacy but a lot about where he's gotten to with all this. Very intriguing

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

#237

Post by wuschel »

DantesKite wrote: post #73

Man these are some low-quality comments. You’d think Wolfram was torturing gerbils or something. I don’t mind criticisms of my favorite thinkers. I enjoy watching someone being taken to task in the battle of ideas so to speak, but apparently something about Wolfram just rubs people the wrong way, because they seem to lose the ability to make cogent arguments after reading him. As a simple example of what a healthy di…

> He’s changed my understanding of evolution completely with his insights on computational irreducibility and complexity.

Quote you please elaborate on that? Or perhaps quote a piece of work that refers to your statement? Thank you :)

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

#238

Post by gavinray »

Could anyone ELI5 the general ideas that Wolfram has been talking about the last few years?

I read the (original) announcement post, and the visuals are very interesting and full of neat geometric structures but it's so far over my head I haven't a clue what he's talking about.

It's some sort of theory about fundamental structures/relationships that underlie "everything"? How mathematically viable/potentially-legitimate is this?

His work doesn't read like a nutjob to me but I also don't have the credibility to judge.

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

#240

Post by ganzuul »

SantalBlush wrote: post #209
ganzuul wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have more substance to your argument than an ad hominem? This is trite.

Pointing out character flaws is not an ad hominem in itself. Stop calling everything an ad hominem, folks.

Modular ethical argument. There is nothing of substance but attention to the character judgement in the message.
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