History of Science and Technology Q&A (April 3, 2024)

Stephen Wolfram hosts a live and unscripted Ask Me Anything about the history of science and technology for all ages. Find the playlist of Q&A's here: wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa
Originally livestreamed at: / stephen_wolfram
If you missed the original livestream of this episode, feel free to submit a question you would like Stephen to answer in a future Q&A livestream here: wolfr.am/12cczmv5J
00:00 Start stream
00:27 SW starts talking
00:38-2:22 Is there a directionality to science and technology?​​
2:30-5:39 Has anyone sort of applied the hacker mentality to the Antikythera mechanism to figure out what else you could use it for? What kind of uses could a time-traveling von Neumann figure out?​​
5:50-9:31 What is the likelihood that ancient tech we've discovered had vastly different uses than what we believe?​​
9:36-11:19 ​​Southeast Asia is terrible for archeology because you can make almost anything from bamboo: tens of thousands of years ago, people obviously used wood etc., but only stone remains.​​
11:25-15:49 What does that say going forward, with our fast-rotting bits, in contrast with stone or wood, or even paper?
15:54-18:15 ​​Any thoughts on the ancient dodecahedra? Do you have one?​​
18:30-25:55 Who started research on the periodic tables? Can you discuss a bit about its development?​​
26:13-43:13 What motivated the advent of the fast Fourier transform algorithm? What was its creator wanting to solve?​​
43:20-45:38 ​​How advanced did analog computers get before we moved to digital computers? Was there any debate on whether we shouldn't move to digital at the time?​​
45:58-59:57 Why did modern formal logic take so long to develop historically, compared to other branches of mathematics or physical sciences? What explains the delay until the mid-nineteenth century?​​
1:00:09-1:11:22 Is there any knowledge in physics today that has been influenced by ancient texts like the Vedas etc.?​​
1:12:58 End Stream
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[@tomaszrybarczyk630]

Thanks a lot for making these videos. Really entertaining and informative. I love them.

[@TheMemesofDestruction]

Can confirm.

[@mikecarr1552]

Can’t believe u know so much . I feel stupid 👍