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Q&A with Stephen Wolfram
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class="questions"> <header id="header"> <div class="inner"> <button class="hamburger">≡</button> <h1 id="logo"> <a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com">Stephen Wolfram <svg viewBox="6.252 51.944 1031.673 96.468"> <g id="logoSVG"> <path d="M643.657,60.162c1.429-0.357,2.501-0.714,3.572-0.714h0.536V53.91h-34.121v5.538h0.536 c4.287,0.357,7.503,1.072,9.468,1.965c1.787,0.894,2.68,1.965,2.68,3.216c0,1.072-0.179,2.322-0.357,3.751 s-0.893,4.288-1.965,8.218c-1.429,5.716-3.395,12.505-5.538,20.544c-2.144,7.682-4.645,16.436-7.503,26.439L588.456,55.16h-6.968 l-22.33,66.812c-4.823-16.971-8.218-29.297-10.719-37.693c-2.501-8.575-4.287-15.006-5.181-18.758c0-0.357-0.179-1.072-0.357-1.786 c-0.179-0.715-0.179-1.251-0.179-1.608c0-1.072,1.607-1.608,3.037-1.965c2.322-0.536,5.002-0.714,8.218-0.893h0.536V53.91h-38.23 v5.538h0.536c1.071,0,2.322,0.357,3.751,0.714c1.43,0.357,2.502,0.894,3.573,1.608c1.251,0.893,2.144,1.787,2.858,2.68 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c-1.511-7.717-3.043-15.699-4.41-23.561l-0.122-0.694c-0.672-3.749-1.334-7.618-0.672-11.29l1.422-0.85 c1.715-0.924,3.322-2.033,4.796-3.307c3.513-3.107,6.731-6.533,9.614-10.232c1.267-1.897,2.209-3.991,2.79-6.196 c0.297-0.893,0.562-1.731,0.882-2.547C674.238,77.376,677.832,67.145,677.094,55.876z M665.771,69.735l-1.411,3.914 c-1.532,4.245-3.109,8.644-4.752,12.922c-1.693,4.485-4.831,8.278-8.92,10.783c-0.011-0.118-0.011-0.235,0-0.353 c0.232-11.874,1.896-21.125,5.271-29.107c2.58-6.031,6.186-10.287,11.025-12.977c0.471,0.565,0.693,1.297,0.617,2.028 C667.788,61.286,667.168,65.623,665.771,69.735z" /> </g> </svg> </a> <nav id="nav"> <ul> <li> <ul class="links"> <li class="about"><a href="//www.stephenwolfram.com/about/">ABOUT</a></li> <li class="blog"><a href="//writings.stephenwolfram.com">WRITINGS</a></li> <li class="publications"><a href="//www.stephenwolfram.com/publications/">PUBLICATIONS</a></li> <li class="media"><a href="//www.stephenwolfram.com/media/">MEDIA</a></li> <li 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$('.hamburger').click(function(e){ e.stopPropagation(); $('.links').toggleClass('show'); $('#header > .inner').toggleClass('open'); if($('.overlay').length < 1 && !$('.links').hasClass('hide')) { $('#header').append('<div class="overlay">'); } else { $('.overlay').remove(); } }); $('body').click(function(){ $('.links').removeClass('show'); $('.overlay').remove(); $('#header > .inner').removeClass('open'); }); </script> <main class="main"> <header class="main-header"> <div class="inner"> <div class="medium-col-width"> <h1 class="heading"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions">Stephen Wolfram Q&A</a></h1> <a href="/questions/submit-a-question" class="button float-r submit-a-question"> <svg width="23.812px" height="19px" viewBox="0 0 23.812 19"> <g> <path fill="#fff" d="M23.812,5.812L19.062,5.812L19.062,10.312L23.812,5.812Z" /> <path fill="#fff" d="M19.591,2.654C19.591,1.189 18.402,0 16.937,0L2.654,0C1.189,0 0,1.189 0,2.654L0,14.596C0,16.061 1.189,17.25 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class="tag" data-tag="historical-perspectives" href="?c=historical-perspectives">Historical Perspectives</a> <a class="tag" data-tag="just-curious" href="?c=just-curious">Just Curious...</a> <a class="tag" data-tag="mathematics" href="?c=mathematics">Mathematics</a> <a class="tag" data-tag="people" href="?c=people">People</a> <a class="tag" data-tag="personal-history" href="?c=personal-history">Personal History</a> <a class="tag" data-tag="personal-productivity" href="?c=personal-productivity">Personal Productivity</a> <a class="tag" data-tag="science" href="?c=science">Science</a> <a class="tag" data-tag="software-technology" href="?c=software-technology">Software Technology</a> <a class="tag" data-tag="wolfram-language" href="?c=wolfram-language">Wolfram Language</a> </div> <p><em>Questions may be edited for brevity; see links for full questions.</em></p> </div> </div> </header> <section> <div class="inner"> <div><h1 id="category">Current Events</h1><span id="count">(11)</span></div> <div id="posts" class="grid heirs-width-1-2 heirs-width-full__600"> <div class="project current-events" data-position="normal" data-date="2013-01-08 16:22:54"> <p class="date">January 8, 2013</p> <p class="asker">From: <a href='https://web.archive.org/web/20180909171929/https://www.theeuropean-magazine.com/stephen-wolfram--2/7248-big-data' target='_blank'>Interview by Lars Mensel and Thore Barfuss, <em>The European</em></a></p> <h2 class="projectname"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/2013/01/08/has-data-collection-become-too-excessive/">Has data collection become too excessive?</a></h2> <div class="introtext" data-text="<p>I think it is inevitable. It&#8217;s just going to happen. Let me give you a personal example; you can find tons of data about me but until recently you could not find the names of my kids. I know enough about data and decided not to publish their names on the web. So they weren&#8217;t out there. But now they have their own Internet presence and can be found quite easily. When it comes to data, it is all about what we are willing to share.</p> <a class='less' href='#close'>Close answer »</a>" data-truncate="I think it is inevitable. It&#8217;s just going to happen. Let me give you a personal example; you can find tons of data about me but until recently you could not find the names of my kids. I know enough about data and decided not to publish their names on the web. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a>"> I think it is inevitable. It’s just going to happen. Let me give you a personal example; you can find tons of data about me but until recently you could not find the names of my kids. I know enough about data and decided not to publish their names on the web. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a> </div> <div class="text"> <a class="tag" data-tag="current-events" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=current-events">Current Events</a> </div> </div> <div class="project current-events" data-position="normal" data-date="2013-01-08 16:26:28"> <p class="date">January 8, 2013</p> <p class="asker">From: <a href='https://web.archive.org/web/20180909171929/https://www.theeuropean-magazine.com/stephen-wolfram--2/7248-big-data' target='_blank'>Interview by Lars Mensel and Thore Barfuss, <em>The European</em></a></p> <h2 class="projectname"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/2013/01/08/can-we-really-trust-companies-with-our-personal-data/">Can we really trust companies with our personal data?</a></h2> <div class="introtext" data-text="<p>It&#8217;s nice if people trust companies that collect data and hope they don&#8217;t do something terrible with it. Trust has been good for the Wolfram Alpha project. People do trust us, probably because we are not as commercial as other companies. And we are not going to use the personal data that we have. We have never done so and we do not intend to do so in the future. But maybe that is a bad idea.</p> <a class='less' href='#close'>Close answer »</a>" data-truncate="It&#8217;s nice if people trust companies that collect data and hope they don&#8217;t do something terrible with it. Trust has been good for the Wolfram Alpha project. People do trust us, probably because we are not as commercial as other companies. And we are not going to use the personal data that we have. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a>"> It’s nice if people trust companies that collect data and hope they don’t do something terrible with it. Trust has been good for the Wolfram Alpha project. People do trust us, probably because we are not as commercial as other companies. And we are not going to use the personal data that we have. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a> </div> <div class="text"> <a class="tag" data-tag="current-events" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=current-events">Current Events</a> </div> </div> <div class="project current-events" data-position="normal" data-date="2013-01-08 16:33:41"> <p class="date">January 8, 2013</p> <p class="asker">From: <a href='https://web.archive.org/web/20180909171929/https://www.theeuropean-magazine.com/stephen-wolfram--2/7248-big-data' target='_blank'>Interview by Lars Mensel and Thore Barfuss, <em>The European</em></a></p> <h2 class="projectname"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/2013/01/08/what-do-you-think-about-the-idea-that-data-should-get-an-expiration-date/">What do you think about the idea that data should get an expiration date?</a></h2> <div class="introtext" data-text="<p>That question has been overlooked for a long time. I know that some people and companies are finally working on it. For years, I have been wondering whether you could build a &#8220;digital time safe&#8221; to safely store data that only becomes accessible 20 years later. Can you put information away? In some way, that is the inverse of what you&#8217;re talking about.</p> <a class='less' href='#close'>Close answer »</a>" data-truncate="That question has been overlooked for a long time. I know that some people and companies are finally working on it. For years, I have been wondering whether you could build a &#8220;digital time safe&#8221; to safely store data that only becomes accessible 20 years later. Can you put information away? <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a>"> That question has been overlooked for a long time. I know that some people and companies are finally working on it. For years, I have been wondering whether you could build a “digital time safe” to safely store data that only becomes accessible 20 years later. Can you put information away? <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a> </div> <div class="text"> <a class="tag" data-tag="current-events" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=current-events">Current Events</a> </div> </div> <div class="project current-events personal-productivity" data-position="normal" data-date="2013-04-26 16:14:00"> <p class="date">April 26, 2013</p> <p class="asker">From: <a href='https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/more/7542' target='_blank'>Interview by Patrick Tucker, IEET</a></p> <h2 class="projectname"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/2013/04/26/how-do-you-see-personal-analytics-trends-evolving-in-the-context-of-present-day-battles-over-privacy-and-over-access-to-information-technology-and-what-has-to-happen-in-order-for-the-self-quantificat/">How do you see personal analytics trends evolving in the context of present-day battles over privacy and over access to information technology? And what has to happen in order for the self-quantification trend to become a truly sustainable movement?</a></h2> <div class="introtext" data-text="<p>Right now, for most people, it&#8217;s dealing with this data. There&#8217;s all kinds of plumbing that has to be done. Like, how do you actually get your cell phone call record out? It&#8217;s going to stay a complex, multi-part, multi-vendor environment, where people have different phones, email systems, computers, and little devices like pedometers. Those devices will come from lots of places. So the main thing that holds things up is just the practical difficulty of all of this plumbing, of getting data from here to there, and so on.</p> <a class='less' href='#close'>Close answer »</a>" data-truncate="Right now, for most people, it&#8217;s dealing with this data. There&#8217;s all kinds of plumbing that has to be done. Like, how do you actually get your cell phone call record out? It&#8217;s going to stay a complex, multi-part, multi-vendor environment, where people have different phones, email systems, computers, and little devices like pedometers. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a>"> Right now, for most people, it’s dealing with this data. There’s all kinds of plumbing that has to be done. Like, how do you actually get your cell phone call record out? It’s going to stay a complex, multi-part, multi-vendor environment, where people have different phones, email systems, computers, and little devices like pedometers. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a> </div> <div class="text"> <a class="tag" data-tag="current-events" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=current-events">Current Events</a> <a class="tag" data-tag="personal-productivity" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=personal-productivity">Personal Productivity</a> </div> </div> <div class="project current-events future-perspectives" data-position="normal" data-date="2018-05-14 20:28:51"> <p class="date">May 14, 2018</p> <p class="asker">From: <a href='https://www.etf.com/sections/features-and-news/blockchain-future-futures' target='_blank'>Interview by Lara Crigger, ETF.com</a></p> <h2 class="projectname"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/2018/05/14/what-sort-of-applications-could-smart-contracts-have-in-the-financial-markets/">What sort of applications could smart contracts have in the financial markets?</a></h2> <div class="introtext" data-text="<p>In the world of finance, it&#8217;s already happened a bit. For the last, I don&#8217;t know, 30 years, options [contracts] have been expressed in essentially an algorithmic way.</p> <p>But mortgages haven&#8217;t. So, if you take this multipage mortgage document and express it in computable form, then you can take 10,000 and do systematic analysis on them.</p> <p>That&#8217;s a rather sterile example. But there are plenty of other examples; say, whether you&#8217;ll deliver 10,000 pounds of grade-A bananas to this site at this time.</p> <a class='less' href='#close'>Close answer »</a>" data-truncate="In the world of finance, it&#8217;s already happened a bit. For the last, I don&#8217;t know, 30 years, options [contracts] have been expressed in essentially an algorithmic way. But mortgages haven&#8217;t. So, if you take this multipage mortgage document and express it in computable form, then you can take 10,000 and do systematic analysis on them. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a>"> In the world of finance, it’s already happened a bit. For the last, I don’t know, 30 years, options [contracts] have been expressed in essentially an algorithmic way. But mortgages haven’t. So, if you take this multipage mortgage document and express it in computable form, then you can take 10,000 and do systematic analysis on them. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a> </div> <div class="text"> <a class="tag" data-tag="current-events" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=current-events">Current Events</a> <a class="tag" data-tag="future-perspectives" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=future-perspectives">Future Perspectives</a> </div> </div> <div class="project current-events" data-position="normal" data-date="2018-05-14 20:30:58"> <p class="date">May 14, 2018</p> <p class="asker">From: <a href='https://www.etf.com/sections/features-and-news/blockchain-future-futures' target='_blank'>Interview by Lara Crigger, ETF.com</a></p> <h2 class="projectname"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/2018/05/14/what-sort-of-limitations-do-smart-contracts-introduce-that-dont-exist-in-the-status-quo-right-now/">What sort of limitations do smart contracts introduce that don’t exist in the status quo right now?</a></h2> <div class="introtext" data-text="<p>You lose wiggle room. Instead, it&#8217;s basically, &#8220;Well, there was this piece of code we set up, and it ran, and these are the consequences&#8221;. In a sense, it&#8217;s more like dealing with the natural world. You can ask, &#8220;Why did the tornado turn left?&#8221; Well, ultimately it&#8217;s the laws of physics that determined that. It&#8217;s not like a human decided that.</p> <a class='less' href='#close'>Close answer »</a>" data-truncate="You lose wiggle room. Instead, it&#8217;s basically, &#8220;Well, there was this piece of code we set up, and it ran, and these are the consequences&#8221;. In a sense, it&#8217;s more like dealing with the natural world. You can ask, &#8220;Why did the tornado turn left?&#8221; Well, ultimately it&#8217;s the laws of physics that determined that."> You lose wiggle room. Instead, it’s basically, “Well, there was this piece of code we set up, and it ran, and these are the consequences”. In a sense, it’s more like dealing with the natural world. You can ask, “Why did the tornado turn left?” Well, ultimately it’s the laws of physics that determined that. </div> <div class="text"> <a class="tag" data-tag="current-events" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=current-events">Current Events</a> </div> </div> <div class="project current-events" data-position="normal" data-date="2019-11-20 17:04:37"> <p class="date">November 20, 2019</p> <p class="asker">From: <a href='https://adage.com/article/digital/technologist-stephen-wolfram-puts-pin-social-media-information-bubbles/2215766' target='_blank'>Interview by Garett Sloane, <em>AdAge</em></a></p> <h2 class="projectname"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/2019/11/20/if-not-facebook-and-twitter-what-entities-would-create-the-social-algorithms-that-sort-news-feeds/">If not Facebook and Twitter, what entities would create the social algorithms that sort news feeds?</a></h2> <div class="introtext" data-text="<p>The thing I was most dealing with was automated ranking of content. That is one of the big issues, obviously. There is lots of content out there in the world. A lot of what is important about these platforms these days is their ability to rank what content a particular person should see and when. That seems to be the place where there’s sort of a lot of angst. How is that ranking working? What’s blocked? What’s ranked highly? How does that all work?</p> <p>These platforms have gotten themselves into what seems to me to be a very difficult business position. They are effectively trying to become kind of moral arbiters for the world. By saying this is content we think should be here, this is content that shouldn’t be here. That’s a very difficult position for them, and people will inevitably be upset with them.</p> <a class='less' href='#close'>Close answer »</a>" data-truncate="The thing I was most dealing with was automated ranking of content. That is one of the big issues, obviously. There is lots of content out there in the world. A lot of what is important about these platforms these days is their ability to rank what content a particular person should see and when. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a>"> The thing I was most dealing with was automated ranking of content. That is one of the big issues, obviously. There is lots of content out there in the world. A lot of what is important about these platforms these days is their ability to rank what content a particular person should see and when. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a> </div> <div class="text"> <a class="tag" data-tag="current-events" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=current-events">Current Events</a> </div> </div> <div class="project current-events" data-position="normal" data-date="2019-11-20 17:09:26"> <p class="date">November 20, 2019</p> <p class="asker">From: <a href='https://adage.com/article/digital/technologist-stephen-wolfram-puts-pin-social-media-information-bubbles/2215766' target='_blank'>Interview by Garett Sloane, <em>AdAge</em></a></p> <h2 class="projectname"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/2019/11/20/why-would-people-want-a-brand-to-run-their-news-feed/">Why would people want a brand to run their news feed?</a></h2> <div class="introtext" data-text="<p>I trust my final ranking provider, which is some brand that I’ve known about for decades, to be the thing that is defining my way of thinking about the world that represents the values that I want in my news feed.</p> <p>It’s nothing really new. People have always had a choice to read this newspaper or that newspaper. We’re in the situation where because of the technology of these platforms and the network effects that exist, it’s kind of like only one newspaper that is intimately tied into the infrastructure of these platforms.</p> <a class='less' href='#close'>Close answer »</a>" data-truncate="I trust my final ranking provider, which is some brand that I’ve known about for decades, to be the thing that is defining my way of thinking about the world that represents the values that I want in my news feed. It’s nothing really new. People have always had a choice to read this newspaper or that newspaper. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a>"> I trust my final ranking provider, which is some brand that I’ve known about for decades, to be the thing that is defining my way of thinking about the world that represents the values that I want in my news feed. It’s nothing really new. People have always had a choice to read this newspaper or that newspaper. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a> </div> <div class="text"> <a class="tag" data-tag="current-events" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=current-events">Current Events</a> </div> </div> <div class="project current-events" data-position="normal" data-date="2019-11-20 17:12:47"> <p class="date">November 20, 2019</p> <p class="asker">From: <a href='https://adage.com/article/digital/technologist-stephen-wolfram-puts-pin-social-media-information-bubbles/2215766' target='_blank'>Interview by Garett Sloane, <em>AdAge</em></a></p> <h2 class="projectname"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/2019/11/20/there-has-been-a-lot-of-concern-that-ceos-like-mark-zuckerberg-decide-what-can-and-cant-be-seen-on-platforms-how-do-you-address-that/">There has been a lot of concern that CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg decide what can and can’t be seen on platforms. How do you address that?</a></h2> <div class="introtext" data-text="<p>One of the mistakes that shouldn’t be made is [assuming] that somehow technology will solve the problem. There’s a technical component to it that is quite sophisticated and complicated, but it’s not something that at end of day Mark Zuckerberg or anyone is going to be able to say “We’re going to have AI figure out what the right thing to do is”. It’s philosophically impossible. Ethics is not like mathematics. There’s no right answer. It’s something that people have to decide what they want.</p> <a class='less' href='#close'>Close answer »</a>" data-truncate="One of the mistakes that shouldn’t be made is [assuming] that somehow technology will solve the problem. There’s a technical component to it that is quite sophisticated and complicated, but it’s not something that at end of day Mark Zuckerberg or anyone is going to be able to say “We’re going to have AI figure out what the right thing to do is”. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a>"> One of the mistakes that shouldn’t be made is [assuming] that somehow technology will solve the problem. There’s a technical component to it that is quite sophisticated and complicated, but it’s not something that at end of day Mark Zuckerberg or anyone is going to be able to say “We’re going to have AI figure out what the right thing to do is”. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a> </div> <div class="text"> <a class="tag" data-tag="current-events" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=current-events">Current Events</a> </div> </div> <div class="project current-events" data-position="normal" data-date="2019-11-20 21:41:17"> <p class="date">November 20, 2019</p> <p class="asker">From: <a href='https://adage.com/article/digital/technologist-stephen-wolfram-puts-pin-social-media-information-bubbles/2215766' target='_blank'>Interview by Garett Sloane, <em>AdAge</em></a></p> <h2 class="projectname"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/2019/11/20/why-did-you-propose-to-congress-that-they-hand-over-control-of-social-media-algorithms-giving-outside-companies-the-ability-to-sort-posts-for-users-in-news-feeds/">Why did you propose to Congress that they hand over control of social media algorithms, giving outside companies the ability to sort posts for users in news feeds?</a></h2> <div class="introtext" data-text="<p>The reason I agreed to testify when I did was because things were being proposed that didn’t make any scientific and technological sense, and so I thought I should point that out. And then I realized, “Gosh I’m just going to come and say a bunch of negative things about things that won’t work. I better come with suggestions of things that might work”.</p> <p>To my considerable surprise the suggestions that I came up with [have] had a lot of interest and positive feedback. And basically nobody&mdash;and I’ve talked to a lot of people about them now, including people very involved in the actual implementation of these kind of things&mdash;nobody has come and said there’s a fatal flaw. So I think that’s quite interesting.</p> <a class='less' href='#close'>Close answer »</a>" data-truncate="The reason I agreed to testify when I did was because things were being proposed that didn’t make any scientific and technological sense, and so I thought I should point that out. And then I realized, “Gosh I’m just going to come and say a bunch of negative things about things that won’t work. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a>"> The reason I agreed to testify when I did was because things were being proposed that didn’t make any scientific and technological sense, and so I thought I should point that out. And then I realized, “Gosh I’m just going to come and say a bunch of negative things about things that won’t work. <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a> </div> <div class="text"> <a class="tag" data-tag="current-events" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=current-events">Current Events</a> </div> </div> <div class="project current-events science" data-position="normal" data-date="2019-12-18 21:38:15"> <p class="date">December 18, 2019</p> <p class="asker">From: <a href='https://guykawasaki.com/stephen-wolfram-remarkable-people/' target='_blank'>Interview by Guy Kawasaki, <em>Remarkable People Podcast</em></a></p> <h2 class="projectname"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/2019/12/18/what-is-your-reaction-to-the-reputation-of-science-these-days-particularly-at-the-highest-levels-of-our-government/">What is your reaction to the reputation of science these days, particularly at the highest levels of our government?</a></h2> <div class="introtext" data-text="<p>Science is in some ways its own worst enemy in that regard because what&#8217;s happened is that there are things that science has done a really good job of establishing. There are things where there is science that can be said about them, but it&#8217;s kind of overreached in some way or another, and people then get suspicious. People would say&#8230; for example, evolution. &#8220;Evolution is the whole story of biology&#8221;, people would say. Well, it&#8217;s not. There&#8217;s other things going on, and some of them I&#8217;ve figured out in the science of how complicated forms arise in biology, which is something where people say, &#8220;It must just be evolution because evolution is all there is&#8221;.</p> <p>Actually, evolution on its own can&#8217;t explain why there are complicated forms. That&#8217;s a computational phenomenon that is similar to this rule 30 phenomenon, where the rules can be simple, and the forms that are produced aren&#8217;t simple. It&#8217;s a place where when people just say, &#8220;It&#8217;s evolution, that&#8217;s all there is. If you say there&#8217;s anything else to biology other than evolution, you&#8217;re wrong&#8221;. That&#8217;s an overreach in the sense that actually there is something else going on, which is nontrivial science. It&#8217;s not that the other thing that&#8217;s going on is not science. It&#8217;s absolutely science. It&#8217;s probably cleaner science than evolution, in many ways. But it&#8217;s something where people say, &#8220;We&#8217;ve got one piece of science, let&#8217;s carry that all the way&#8221;.</p> <p>I think the other thing that happens&#8230; there&#8217;s an important phenomenon not yet well understood, although I happened to testify for a Senate subcommittee a couple of months ago and now this term is in the congressional record. I don&#8217;t know what that means about it. The term is computational irreducibility. What does that mean? You say, &#8220;I know the rules for how some system behaves. I can figure out everything about what the system does&#8221;. Actually, that&#8217;s not really true, because you might run the system for a billion steps and you have to go through all those billion steps. The question is can you figure out what&#8217;s going to happen in the system more efficiently than just running those billion steps? You&#8217;d have to run all those steps and see what happens.</p> <p>That&#8217;s important when it comes to predicting the climate or something. The question is, can you just say, &#8220;This is the answer&#8221;, or is this a computational irreducibility phenomenon that means there&#8217;s an irreducible amount of computational work you have to do to figure out what&#8217;s going to happen, and where it&#8217;s very hard to make simple &#8220;Oh, it&#8217;s just going to do this&#8221; claims. One of the things that happens is people will say, &#8220;We have this science. We know something about this scientifically. We will take that particular idea in science and take it to its end conclusion. Because it&#8217;s science, that must be the whole story&#8221;. But actually, it&#8217;s not. You&#8217;ve just got one particular piece of the science, and you forgot about other parts, particularly this phenomenon of computational irreducibility that means even though you know the equations for things about fluid in the atmosphere and so on&#8230; even though you know that, doesn&#8217;t mean it&#8217;s easy to tell what&#8217;s going to happen.</p> <p>I think what has tended to happen is that people have said, &#8220;Science is the new religion in many ways&#8221;, in the sense that people say, &#8220;We believe in science&#8221;. In some ways, they believe in a version of science that isn&#8217;t well informed by things like computational irreducibility. They believe in a version of science that has simple cut-and-dried answers to things. Other people say, &#8220;Common sense tells me this can&#8217;t be right&#8221;, and they&#8217;re right. It&#8217;s not right. It&#8217;s a piece of the story, and there are certainly places where that story comes through for science spectacularly. But there are other ones&#8230; including some of these most controversial ones, whether it&#8217;s in a medical area or in climate&#8230; where it&#8217;s not so obvious. It&#8217;s not something where it&#8217;s a cut-and-dried story.</p> <p>Now, people can come up with crazy conclusions. I&#8217;m not arguing that all the things that are said that are on the other side from the cut-and-dried science make sense, but it isn&#8217;t true that the cut-and-dried science is really the whole story. I feel that actually it&#8217;s a thing where science has done itself a considerable disservice by trying to make things seem cut and dried and simple when they&#8217;re actually not. Some people are rightly suspicious and say, &#8220;It can&#8217;t be the whole story&#8221;. Then there&#8217;s an attack on science as a whole, which is also unfair.</p> <p>I think it&#8217;s a more complicated picture. I always kind of wince when I hear &#8220;Science has proved that blank blank blank&#8221;, when it&#8217;s like, &#8220;I know how the science works. You can&#8217;t possibly have proved that&#8221;. It&#8217;s a much more complicated story. There are things you can say, but there are also a lot of footnotes and caveats and so on.</p> <a class='less' href='#close'>Close answer »</a>" data-truncate="Science is in some ways its own worst enemy in that regard because what&#8217;s happened is that there are things that science has done a really good job of establishing. There are things where there is science that can be said about them, but it&#8217;s kind of overreached in some way or another, <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a>"> Science is in some ways its own worst enemy in that regard because what’s happened is that there are things that science has done a really good job of establishing. There are things where there is science that can be said about them, but it’s kind of overreached in some way or another, <a href="#more" class="more chevron-after">Read more</a> </div> <div class="text"> <a class="tag" data-tag="current-events" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=current-events">Current Events</a> <a class="tag" data-tag="science" href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/main/?c=science">Science</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <footer id="footer"> <div class="inner"><a href="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/contact/">Contact</a> <span class="pipe">|</span> © Stephen Wolfram, LLC</div> </footer> <script src="https://www.stephenwolfram.com/questions/wp-content/themes/questions/js/scripts.js"></script> </main> <!-- begin framework footer en --> <div id ="IPstripe-wrap"></div> <script src="/common/stripe/stripe.en.js"></script> <!-- end framework footer en --> </body> </html>