[Sobeyet]

http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/int...lframalpha.html

[Innocence]

Wow....

[Wrathblood]

Wolfram's a New Kind of Science is a book that has always resonated with me, though I admit I didn't have the oomph to get through the whole thing. Its a book that just sort of feels like he's really onto something, and if he is, and if someone can translate it into something useful and comprehensible, it might be one of the greatest flashes of genius of our lifetimes.

Watching that demo makes me think that his company has spent the last several years working on this, and this is what they have so far. Doesn't mean that he's right, but its possible. Maybe it'll end up being essentially nothing, or a new system of computer programing and systems analysis, but it also could end up as an entire new branch of science/math. Calling it potentially interesting is like calling the development of ENIAC potentially interesting.

[Sobeyet]

Wrathblood, on May 14 2009, 08:28 PM, said:

if someone can translate it into something useful and comprehensible, it might be one of the greatest flashes of genius of our lifetimes.

whereru Malcolm Gladwell.

[Wrathblood]

Seriously. Thomas Friedman (speaking of geniuses. Why isn't it genii? Like Tyrannosaurus Rice) once said that if you have a concept and can't explain it to a freshman seminar you don't understand the concept well enough yet.

Being good at that isn't nearly as trivial as it looks. In high school we had to go to local elementary schools and teach a 30 minute lesson. I tried to teach my 2nd grade class about price elasticity (including a few minutes on negative price elasticity, illustrated with charts and pictures of the Irish potato famine). I absolutely thought it was a reasonable (and useful!) thing to try and teach 8 year-olds, proving that I was a lot dumber than I thought I was.

[Sobeyet]

Wrathblood, on May 14 2009, 08:42 PM, said:

Why isn't it genii?

Stephen Hawking got tired of people rubbing his belly and making a wish.

Wrathblood, on May 14 2009, 08:42 PM, said:

Being good at that isn't nearly as trivial as it looks. In high school we had to go to local elementary schools and teach a 30 minute lesson. I tried to teach my 2nd grade class about price elasticity (including a few minutes on negative price elasticity, illustrated with charts and pictures of the Irish potato famine). I absolutely thought it was a reasonable (and useful!) thing to try and teach 8 year-olds, proving that I was a lot dumber than I thought I was.

At least you haven't tried to teach your 87-year old grandpa how to use a DVR. That was a fun weekend.

[Wrathblood]

Looks like Wolfram is getting off to a slow start

http://www.slate.com/id/2218594