History of Science & Technology Q&A (October 5, 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: What's the history behind emails and instant messaging? I have a hard time imagining life before then and handling communication that may not get a response for days (waiting for a letter in the mail). - What were the early days of Wolfram|Alpha like? - I see papers from '40s - even '30s - of PRL (physical reviews). They are typeset so cleanly. How did they do this without LaTeX at that time? - It's been said that a real perpetual motion machine cannot exist. Do you agree, or do you think we can get there and we just don't know how yet? - At a quantum scale, there seems to be perpetual motion. Otherwise the electron would collapse into the nucleus. So is there a Maxwell's demon at the quantum scale that can only open very small doors? - What were people's reactions to Carnot's exploration of steam engine mechanics and the development of the idealized Carnot cycle? - What is the history of Fahrenheit and ancient representations of temperature - perhaps some that were even non-numerical?