Stephen Wolfram Q&A, For Kids (and others) [April 23, 2021]
Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: If there's a way to create climate change, that must mean there's a way to reverse it? - Feel like the greenhouse effect was based of Venus's greenhouse effect. - Carbon capture research is all the focus, Isn't this just kicking the can down the road? The carbon is stored but not converted so what is the real benefit? - Is climate change necessarily bad? As in, what equilibrium we may reach after the instability has stabilized, would that new equilibrium necessarily be worse than the one we have enjoyed for a while? - But if we do that, do we really understand the effect well enough?I I mean you don't know if more plankton is good for carbon dioxide situation, but maybe it may make something worse too - Think how lucky human beings are - Do you think there are life forms out there where their spectrum of visible light is totally different than ours? - Do you think there's a plateau we must break through for space exploration to be more feasible, or is our progress as is good enough? - Dr. Wolfram, thank you for your time! "Sustainable" energy is a major issue these days, but I'm skeptical that renewables like solar and wind can meet growing demand. What are your thoughts on fission and gen IV reactor technology? - We could study moon rocks in greater detail, and then after that, we can do it again.