History of Science & Technology Q&A (August 10, 2022)
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: You have published several other books after NKS. Has publishing technology and quality changed in the intervening time? - Would you like to provide a history of fluid mechanics, for example how the Navier–Stokes equations were discovered and how they work? - Given the recent hearings on and history of UFOs, do you have any thoughts on this subject? - In general, how do you engage with conspiracy theories or "alternative science"? I'm curious because most scientists in institutions are immediately dismissive of anything outside mainstream thought, but to me this seems just as intellectually dishonest as ascribing absolute certainty to any given conspiracy theory. - Isn't there a suspicious correlation between a surge in UFO sightings since the 1950s and a surge of UFO movies during that same period? - What about the Phoenix Lights event where thousands of people saw the same exact thing? - What are some other notable phenomena that people thought they observed that never were proven to have scientific validity (e.g. alchemy)? - How has your view of the future changed over the past 40 years? - Most surprising is that so many people are using the internet for watching cat videos instead of doing useful things. - Maybe cats are the aliens.