History of Science & Technology Q&A (December 15, 2021)

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: Can we consider very early games like the game of Go as an expression of a mathematical thinking? - ​Is science still the place where the best thrive or has that shifted to "industry"? What's the historical context? - Do you credit E=mc^2 to Einstein or to the Italian Olinto De Pretto, who discovered it before Einstein? - Is there a high period of any one institution that's your favorite? (ex: Bell Labs and the young Turks in the 40s, PARC in the 70s and 80s, etc.) - What technology got lost from the moon-landing so they cant repeat it nowadays? And how did they shielded the radiation during the moon mission? - What is your perspective on the growing sentiment of racism in technology, such as algorithmic bias? Do you agree that there is an issue, and if so what are some steps that need to be taken in response? - ​Do you think (monotheistic) religion was in some sense a precursor to science because it presented the world as having a single truth which all people could somehow access? - Why did it take so long to get so technically advanced?

Om Podcasten

Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram Language; the author of A New Kind of Science; and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. Over the course of nearly four decades, he has been a pioneer in the development and application of computational thinking—and has been responsible for many discoveries, inventions and innovations in science, technology and business. On his podcast, Stephen discusses topics ranging from the history of science to the future of civilization and ethics of AI.