Computing a theory of everything | Stephen Wolfram

www.ted.com Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica, talks about his quest to make all knowledge computational -- able to be searched, processed and manipulated. His new search engine, Wolfram Alpha, has no lesser goal than to model and explain the physics underlying the universe.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

[@FuckOrFudge]

10 years later and I thought wolfram was simply for checking my calculus homework...

[@joakinfrati7867]

Indeed haha

[@voltz8945]

Yes

[@manit77]

Me 2 lol

[@actualboosts3398]

"Checking"

[@bobash1666]

@@actualboosts3398 "Fact checking"

[@AdrianSteinsleger]

Wolfram is living proof of how awesome the times we're living are.

[@synslonca6431]

For some of us. To be precise, for those who own a PC and have internet access, which is more less 2.68 billion of the population, just a third of the whole. Even I would say lucky for those who have electricity access.

[@CarlosHfam]

+Syn Slonca We're getting there my friend. Capitalism is generally favorable to those more opportunistic countries who have a good relationship to the bigger players like the US, Russia, or China. Other countries are definitely lagging behind, for reasons of which it is not entirely their fault. But as technology continues to advance in those modern countries, its advancements will continue to benefit those at the bottom.

[@sovietxlr]

no, it won't.

[@tunvas]

Wait until you hear about ChatGPT

[@erikcs2306]

And 10 years later, they're managing the imposible... This is amazing!!

[@jimborush1814]

Erik Coll He gots it

[@zhamed9587]

Has something happened recently since this talk?

[@nickbroekman9360]

Ziad Hatahet well...seems like he cracked it basically. His approach basically explains/predicts all mayor theories from relativity to quantum physics. Extremely cool and a true potential for a unified theory.

[@zhamed9587]

@@nickbroekman9360 Do you have any resources to read up on new developments?

[@nickbroekman9360]

Ziad Hatahet No but there is an extensive 3 hour intervieuw this month with Lex you can find on YT about this..

[@luisramirezadasmeti6300]

Y cumplio su palabra 10 años despues... He kept his word 10 years later... amazing...

[@subernasterd2727]

hermosa teoría la de wolfram

[@papo1935]

@@subernasterd2727 si!!

[@JuliusUnique]

learn english

[@-E-M-M-]

I'm so happy to live in the same century this man lives.

[@Snoopod]

Open-sourcing wolfram alpha technologies would be an incredible thing for the world

[@tusharrakheja7741]

THIS.

[@zackbarkley7593]

That's part of the problem. Wolfram is a capitalist at heart, like Bill Gates. A theory of everything has to be a theory of everyone. You cannot have it both ways. This is why scientific knowledge is in some ways antithetical to technology, the later needs but also destroys the former. Hegemony and fascism are not compatible with truth, at least long term. The cult of personality, genius, and narcissism is a canard brought to you by the already powerful to justify their power. I doubt a TOE exists, or at least wouldn't want it to exist....look what we have done already with the knowledge of nuclear physics. A TOE could be truly horrifying. We're not ready or perhaps not ready to even understand it because we're looking for something unifying (and hence powerful, hegeomonistic and fascistic) which I doubt that's what is the universe in the end. My hope is that a true TOE, or something as close as possible to it, will more likely be a set of unifying principles that maximizes our knowledge of possible universes/conscious realities including parts of own and others, but calculating or (equivalently) attempting to manipulate or control this will be NP-hard, effectively enforcing free will. In such an understanding, a mouse will not be able to create all of our human universe, but it will be able to create "its" universe...and a TOE would allow a limited understanding of a large zoo of possible solipistic universes/realities for different conscious entities and even conscious states (dreams etc)...with "hopefully" no great unifying principle that will allow one to "conquer", "control", "enslave" (and thereby destroy) any other. If such a project is feasible in this century, it will take a greater understanding and inclusion of not just the insights of one person, culture, or civilization, but rather the entirety of conscious existence "on the level." In other words, any success along these lines will not and perhaps even be limited by taking too seriously the efforts of geniuses like Wolfram, unless we seriously consider those of the mice as well.

[@mjsharif2]

​@@zackbarkley7593 Thank you for your beautiful comment Zack. I have much to learn -- as evidenced by the fact that I didn't understand the latter half of this on any level deeper than a surface one. But it brought me somewhere quite beautiful, and there's maybe nothing I love more than seeing hegemonic power structures and physics discussed in the same paragraph -- and even connected as ideas!!

[@zackbarkley7593]

@@mjsharif2 Thanks. It got a bit obtuse in the end... :)

[@zoelove1169]

@@zackbarkley7593 thank you for your comment.

[@santiagosenoran1217]

It's kinda crazy to think that when this video came out I didn't know any english and now that I'm finally ready to watch it 10 years later my mind is blown

[@maxpowe6446]

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

[@AlexandruJalea]

Search for his podcast with Lex Fridman

[@zarco9999]

World takes 10 years to understand this... amazing

[@gulllars4620]

I could watch this guy talk for hours. He is bursting with knowledge, ideas and passion. Probably one of the greatest geniuses currently alive. Now i really want to see a few hours long discussion between him and Nathan Myhrvold on a range of topics they find interesting.

[@obbavyakti5805]

He is not more of a genius than say, Neil de Grass Tyson: big words, no real knowledge to back it all up.

[@shivankmenon4722]

@@obbavyakti5805 Tyson is a science communicator, he hasn't achieved anything much in the sphere of research. Wolfram has created Mathematica, and even did research on particle physics at the age of fifteen. Just google him up and look at his many achievements.

[@themexyeti]

And this dude just did it in the middle of the covid19 pandemic

[@-E-M-M-]

Jus like Newton did

[@danielon252]

And today in Covid times, he came out with the way to acomplish the idea

[@urigeheadmot1196]

how ?

[@danielon252]

@@urigeheadmot1196 kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJPJd6doqrN4r7M Here!

[@ManOleg38]

That is a real scientist. Respect and honor to him a lot.

[@avedic]

I get the counter-arguments against Wolfram's ideas....BUT....I utterly applaud his exuberance, creative outside-the-box thinking, and passion. So what if he's not 100% right about all this? At least he's willing to ask big questions and seek big answers. The people who truly revolutionize our paradigms are always people willing to take risks. People who avoid failure and being wrong are never the ones who change the world. I find Stephen Wolfram inspiring....he's a truly intelligent guy with a radical perspective. It's refreshing to see someone explore far-out ideas. Too many people today seem content with playing it safe...while looking down on those who take real risks. Personally, I'm in awe of the people willing to take those risks. There's nothing inspiring about someone who's worried about making mistakes. Intelligent creative people love mistakes....because a mistake leads to new ideas. If you never make mistakes or try out crazy ideas, you never know what you might be missing. I'm not mathematically adept enough to understand all of what Wolfram is proposing, but from what I do understand it seems he's on to something. Glad there are people like him willing to be adventurous. Fuck the nay-sayers. ^__^

[@obbavyakti5805]

He doesn't have anything to do with real mathematics. WolframAlpha is a sugar-coated hoax.

[@lafeo0077]

@@obbavyakti5805 till a few years back the internet was looked down upon, however the businesses that didn't not accept the internet were the ones that ended up dying. OP here, makes very valid point about the challenging theories and trying to come to a conclusion. Stephen Wolfram is certainly not stupid let alone dumb. He has a huge company, in which scientists and physicists working around multiple ideas. You just dismissing it certainly makes zero difference to what the future beholds, but the reason I am commenting here is because the mindset of dismissing anything until its proven can be scary. No science teaches misinformation, however neither does it appreciate people looking down up novel ideas and technologies. The theory of relativity, black holes were such weird concepts that had not been proven and by many just dismissed. And what do you even mean by real mathematics? And if Wolfram Alpha was a sugar coated hoax there is no reason for the engine powering it to be used by countries and companies to predict their economical backing and future stock fluctuations.

[@hanniffydinn6019]

Progress is always done by so called “heretics”. Look up the history of science. Bruno got burnt alive saying the earth went around the sun. 🤯

[@chrisy.7501]

I have forgotten this lecture since I added into my playlist. I played this day and it was so helpful. I lv yu bro! thank you so much!

[@creativepower213]

Genius. I tried pulling data on some really remote places in the world and it still gave me a clear outcome direct from the source. Good stuff.

[@newtocamelot]

This talk reminded me of Benoit Mandelbrot's work. So cool that he was in the audience.

[@MattUebel]

Absolutely wonderful ideas. Very interesting concept... take the idea of different rule sets and the two dimensional cellular automata, and expand it to "reality creation." The key is the understanding that simple rules can lead to incredible complexity. I wish Stephen, and us, all the luck.

[@Cyanidespork]

This is the most amazing thing I've seen in a long time. This is human changing stuff.

[@ianqueteimporta2297]

And he did it

[@MelroyvandenBerg]

Good work Stephan Wolfram!

[@thorisomolefe2276]

👏👏👏👐👐. This is exactly the path my intuition has been leading me down. This talk lay the concepts down so well and helped clarify my thoughts while sending chills down my spine. At least I know my imagination wasn't running away with me aimlessly. Ah, I've gained whole new clarity and certainty.

[@paulussantosociwidjaja4781]

Awesome learning, thank you for having Stephen Wolfram while still alive. God bless!

[@darkofius]

Dr. Stephen Wolfram is assuredly a polymath, and more. To bring us such a reach new tools into our everyday life is more than one could expect. The fact that his reach is far deeper than one might easily perceive is another sign of his intellectual proves. Let’s thank him for his efforts and work in the past in let him know, that we are gratefully expecting more in the future. Yours, Darko Fius

[@umbrellacorpe3s5]

Your so right!

[@liquidminds]

Yes.. TED-Talk with Stephen Wolfram.. about time! thank you TED!

[@bwrightau]

This was a really enlightening talk on computational theory and I really enjoyed it. It has changed my perspective on my understanding of artificial intelligence and computational models.

[@kwandakekana9890]

I've never seen a bigger standing ovation! NEVER !!! Brilliant

[@jcsoldier11]

Even as a physics major doing really complicated stuff this thing is amazingly reliable

[@SaveSoilSaveSoil]

This talk was given 12 years ago? WOW!

[@ManishKumar-xx7ny]

i listen to Stephen Wolfram podcasts regularly. What a great intelligent man

[@ana88888]

Simply beautiful. A genius. The whole world will change because of him.

[@umbrellacorpe3s5]

A Great Presentation As Always.

[@migueg.r.2088]

I truly think we might be in front of the greatest mind of this century, and even one of the greatest in human history... what a time to be alive!

[@Dania482]

Its a great addition in the complicated world of modelling and testing. No matter either Mathematician, Physicist, Scientist, or Engineers want to use it. Its for everyone to open the close eyes of the world.

[@DrMichaelDobeSr]

Wolfram Alpha is really quite useful. In his TED Talk, Stephen Wolfram puts this platform into the larger context of computational science which he has spent his career developing. Definitely worth a watch!

[@rodrigovinicius8715]

Amazing video. It's amazing to think how simple local rules can create complex self-built structures that "emerge" automatically. The ramified, almost "zoological" forms presented by Wolfram reminded me of the "biomorphs" created by Ricard Dawkins trough computer simulations back in his 1986 book, "The Blind Watchmaker". A similar thought can be applied to embryonic development and the evolution of animal body plans too.

[@TheAquaticBeef]

Haha, love how Benoit always makes sure he gets a mention!

[@ehhhhhhhhhh]

Mathematica is incredible. It doesn't just do your calculus homework.. it actually shows you the steps to get the answer yourself. I highly suggest playing around with 3d plots (search "plot sin x cos y" on Wolfram Alpha).

[@LDchris1]

i love seeing someone get this excited over science and discovery and stuff. it wasnt long ago that i didnt know of anyone who got so excited over that kind of stuff other than me (even though i dont understand most of it haha)......by the way wolfram alpha is AMAZING

[@snarkyboojum]

Wolfram talks go like - "I'm pretty amazing and was doing particle physics when I was a kid" *shows some pretty graphs of cellular automata and makes some hand-wavy comments about computational equivalence* "Actually, I've created a new science, and soon I'll have a theory of everything" *talks about a search engine he created and shows straightforward NLU and search engine capabilities* *audience applauds * "Thank you". I love his knowledge, and his passion for the history of science and making all knowledge readily available via Wolfram Alpha. His work over several decades on Mathematica is far reaching and inspiring, but the claims of revolutionising science and changing the way we understand the universe through computation are so over the top.

[@AlexandruJalea]

He might have just done it. So far, it looks like hi actually did it.

[@snarkyboojum]

Alexandru Jalea yeah maybe, but it’s pretty unclear atm, at least to me - and even if true, isn’t represented well in talks like this one.

[@PhrenicPanic]

@@snarkyboojum Considered that it *might* be because you don't grasp the implications? I was actually looking for his humble brag in this presentation, and although he mentioned that he was involved in physics, he doesn't actually talk about the fact that he was gifted.. Obviously it's implied, but then it would be almost intolerable for someone of his talent to spend any energy trying to be modest. I think he's just excited!

[@snarkyboojum]

@@PhrenicPanic I have considered that, but I've watched a lot of material by him, and others, and I still don't buy the claims. This presentation doesn't do anything to change that - which was my main point.

[@PhrenicPanic]

@@snarkyboojum Mmmm, you're probably right.

[@indianjapan1327]

I witnessed true, original genius on internet after a pretty long time. I'm in awe of his genius. Thank you KZbin and thank you TED.

[@julius923]

Looks like Dilbert's boss has finally found Transcendence.

[@GetMeThere1]

I can't say I completely understand everything in this presentation. However, one thing that comes through is the idea of solving problems...."from the opposite direction." I find that fascinating....this might turn out to have been a historic talk!

[@Oskoreii]

Positively mindblowing

[@ec022]

wolframalpha has saved me in math quite a bit. i love it.

[@maurod6180]

THANKS for sharing!!

[@dane3post3rock]

this dudes voice just makes the vid that much better. brilliant.

[@akirubamiru6700]

Thank you for making my life simplier your programs helps to check if I done my math exercice correctly. I know your invention wasn't to be made and you sacrifice your time on it. Mankind need more people like you Dr Stephen Wolfram!!!!!!!!! But I am curious who must hate this kind of achievement!! At the moment that I write this comment there is 94 dislikes?? How awful can people be!!!!!!!

[@DarkMoonDroid]

akiru bamiru I seriously doubt he has to _"sacrifice"_ time or anything else in order to do this work. Not doing it is the sacrifice. He's prolly making a sacrifice to stand in front of an audience who may or may not understand its value when he'd rather be home working on it. The price of the product is a _HUGE_ problem for a lot of people. I think that is what the dislikes are mainly about. And then there are the trolls who like to screw up algos just for fun...

[@YunikMaharjan]

achieving such an extraordinary things is no a sacrifice, if that's what you call sacrifice than everything we do is a sacrifice too

[@BeginnerDad]

Sometimes kids roam about and press wrong buttons! Nothing to worry about! People are not so awful. Those who understand the talk sure love it. others just walk on ...

[@hobing1618]

10 años después me sale recomendado el video. El mejor TedTalk que he visto 😊

[@JuliusUnique]

learn english

[@aby0ni]

Stephen, you gave me hope.

[@stephenfwadsworth9565]

Thank you from all of us. :)

[@ThisSentenceIsFalse]

We're getting closer to the scenario in Issac Asimov's short story "The Last Question."

[@carlosandresgomezdaza9255]

i was thinking the same jaja

[@juansagan5190]

Here we go!

[@namchung1863]

What a passion.

[@cannibalchewbacca]

Im here going to community college..watching these videos definitely inspire me to do more.

[@Vscustomprinting]

anything left to do?

[@francoemanuel4352]

Simplemente, increíble.

[@yash1152]

18:50 Benoit B. Mandelbrot is in the audience - woah Wiki: Benoit B. Mandelbrot : 20 November 1924 - 14 October 2010 This video upload date: 27 April 2010 (youtube, stop showing me the illogical date format PLEASE)

[@PAKMAN52]

wolfram alpha did all my math homework this semester, calc 2!!

[@Smokeshowgg]

great respect for wolfram and kurzweil....architects of Superintelligent machines

[@bjnartowt]

If only John Wheeler was alive to hear this talk. He was the fellow who coined the term "it from bit".

[@capitanmission]

Like a boss!

[@alvaromd3203]

How interesting is to watch as he exhibits his unshakable confidence and noticing that the world went all along in the complete opposite direction in terms of knowledge production and aggregation (with wikis, collaborations in general and now blockchain), a direction that no individualist project as his can ever meet. Therapy is the missing element here. Seeing his egomania in honest perspective would help him achieve true wisdom; if there’s no time for that, he could at least watch some of Chomsky’s et. al master classes in humbleness. And that, perhaps, could inspire a pathway by which he could one day become comparable to some of the great thinkers of our times, which all understand that the world is always too vast in comparison to any individual contribution. Arrogance + time: convergence to ridiculous.

[@julespoon2884]

There are many ways to attack his ideas of computation but u seem to have gone completely off tangent with a ridiculous criticism.

[@YunikMaharjan]

wolfram alpha has always amazed me

[@kulkarnisingh347]

Great talk

[@a.j.6573]

Amazing 10 years ago

[@Daniel15au]

And that's just the Mathematica code for it, and this was back in 2010. There'd most likely be even more code in other programming languages as well. It's amazing!

[@AlgeKalipso]

@GGAlice1 It is a list of instructions to generate the next level. Basically what is says is: "Fort this combination of squares on the last level, make this square on the next" where the combination in the last level is any sequence of three squares in a row and the next square is the square that is directly below the three above (in the center).

[@Volound]

excellent

[@Dodgyboy43]

this is related to cymatics i think, a lot of the really old temples and stuff have crazy geometrical shapes painted on them in impossibly accurate mathematical patterns, the patterns already exist in nature you just have to find them, they vibrate sand on platforms and it makes shapes based on the pitch it's crazy

[@PaulGutierres100]

Woooow! Sencillo pero increible!

[@SergSpace]

@SergSpace But to get there you have to provide and constantly support these conditions like his program does drawing nothing more but the triangle in the end. To build more complex mechanism you gonna need more complex program. And itt not gonna be created by itself. The complexity is in the motive and sufficiency. What provides conditions, what leads to a certain structure, what stops a program when certain shape is taken?

[@Breaversify]

Wolfram Alpha is not a project, it is the Google of the future, and the world in a nutshell. Well played sir. A life well spent.

[@TheTwoFlower]

"I could go into this with great complexity, but I won't!" Awwwh! Please do? D:

[@dylanlawless1]

Just checked out the Wolfram music generator. Never been so disappointed. It sounds like the demo songs on the £3 keyboard i had as a kid.

[@TheOfAndTo]

ten years later and he continue A genious.

[@izquemia]

Y hoy Wolfram puede darnos un entendimiento distinto del universo. Sensacional!

[@JuliusUnique]

learn english

[@izquemia]

@@JuliusUnique it sound good idea but..... No

[@StuffOffYouStuff]

i love how he just breezily talks about this as if discussing the finer points of hedgerow maintenance

[@ranam]

i think the better way to explain it is the basic construct that is used in lambda calculus can be used as key tool where the basic propositional calculus or predicate calculus where logic can be used as an computation where and and nand and xnor gate can be used to compute any thing from strings or numbers or anything but the basic construct which is not being any of the wolfram video please tell it in another video if iam wrong be kind and correct me where the schools teach computers as pure number system but functional programming and cellular automata tells that gates and every thing used in computation is a function but dont even try to open the mathematical portal from here because the inversion is not allowed as function in lambda calculus but in group theory it does switching a number and getting a answer is thought in many schools but composition of function which does the magic makes Turing complete from gta to arithmetic and even word-processing is done by considering everything and a function and construct are developed and a higher grammar is used in computation even 1 2 3 and even everything is an function from true and false are also function which are developed but how the cellular automata is related the rules are related to lambda calculus and physics the rules emanate from simple rules but not hard encoded or is inside the code and after the graphs develop emanate and develop the computational algorithm and theory is enumerated no video in you tube tells this basic information correctly i guess if i am wrong please correct me i never shy away to learn even i fail

[@AaaaghJOE]

big dreams, thats what i like about ted. I want more ted taloks like this, like it used to be. Help humanity progress.

[@protectbodythetans]

@brown5x thank you! that's was all i could think about while watching this.. that and how much i would hate having this dude as a boss...

[@thealphasystem]

At about 3:00 : 'I created a whole new kind of science' And everybody laughs. Priceless.

[@KoalaBearWarrior]

wolfram is a hero for our time. Wolfram alpha is epic because you can do integration and it shows you all the steps. I got A's on my exams in calc 2 and 3 because of this.

[@PaDutchRunner]

This is….sad.

[@dramawind]

3:41 (record scratch) yep, that's me. You might be wondering how I got myself into this situation

[@frilink]

OH MY GOD.......I've checked the website......It's like my math dream come true.......It's like the new Wikipedia but simpler and straight to the point.......Great Job

[@bokorbusiness]

hats off to this guy

[@riversonthemoon]

I'm completely blown away. This guy will stand alongside Newton, Darwin, Einstein and Turing as one of the greatest contributors to human progress and civilization.

[@salasvalor01]

I've noticed as I've researched stuff online, thinking I'm ahead of the game, there are patterns I find through comments where others have followed a similar trail I have. Perhaps this is the work of social engineering and it has been pre-determined what we will search. Somewhere up the hierarchy it's as if super-intelligence is dictating our lives. I went from Aubrey de Grey to Ray Kurzweil to this, these past couple weeks. de Grey inspired me, but Kurzweil revolutionized my worldview...

[@BulldozerNDF]

amazing

[@ProteusMega]

42

[@DarkMoonDroid]

AlienGamer LOL

[@ProteusMega]

Jennifer Grove :-)

[@franktaylor7978]

+AlienGamer duh,

[@piyohoge6226]

+AlienGamer www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=42Try this! Unfortunately Wolfram alpha doesn't seem to understand your humor :(

[@ProteusMega]

+Piyo Hoge :)

[@yash1152]

8:28 didn't know wolfram alfa was so great and so much generalised

[@arlpoon6423]

wow - this is an astonishing talk from a first rate genius

[@sherlockholmeslives.1605]

I write essays on Black Hole Thermodynamics. I like the Mr Men books, ABBA and Fish and Chips.

[@fuduzan5562]

@Bunji2k6 Compilation errors are pretty much universally easy to fix. For a compilation error to exist the compiler must have identified the error, and if you know what's wrong, it's easy to fix. Post-compilation issues are the problem. :)

[@OldJobobo]

@JaksProductions Yes it is.. and my saying 'Timer' in no way implies whether said timer is going up or down.... So your reply seems superfluous.

[@44616E6E79]

Can someone tell me what he is referring to when he says "a bunch of new ideas about linguistics that came from studying the computational universe" at 9:07?

[@FungusyHam]

it's interesting to think that all logical operations could be computable, and henceforth science would become the search for questions to be answered by the machine, and logical proofs of the machine's accuracy.

[@ChristopherLoyd1]

Google has always been my homepage ever since I can remember, Wolfram Alpha has become a close second in the most visited webpage I use for searching information. :)

[@abcborgess]

Beautiful

[@mehdibaghbadran3182]

Thanks

[@DocDanTheGuitarMan]

Watching this 11 years later and hope I’m too dumb to miss the point. Have there been any applications of this?

[@holdmybeer]

this thing is great! i typed "mdma" just for fun and got a ton of info on it.

[@khurtsiya]

Godlike!

[@mobcat40]

If you go to any university today in the library you can't go 20 minutes without hearing someone say Wolfram's name (because of wolfram alpha, best tool ever).

[@elpachonisimoSOS]

Es tan inteligente y tan avanzado que es difícil seguir el ritmo de todas las implicaciones que esto tiene.