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Stephen Wolfram Quotes
17 quotes from Stephen Wolfram — Founder of Wolfram Research (Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha)..
“All the wonders of our universe can in effect be captured by simple rules, yet there can be no way to know all the consequences of these rules, except in effect just to watch and see how they unfold.”
“It is perhaps a little humbling to discover that we as humans are in effect computationally no more capable than cellular automata with very simple rules. But the Principle of Computational Equivalence also implies that the same is ultimately true of our whole universe.”
“Cellular automata are discrete dynamical systems with simple construction but complex self-organizing behaviour.”
“Computational reducibility may well be the exception rather than the rule: Most physical questions may be answerable only through irreducible amounts of computation.”
“Cellular automata are mathematical models for complex natural systems containing large numbers of simple identical components with local interactions.”
“The fourth class [of cellular automata] is probably capable of universal computation, so that properties of its infinite time behaviour are undecidable.”
“All the wonders of our universe can in effect be captured by simple rules, yet there can be no way to know all the consequences of these rules, except in effect just to watch and see how they unfold.”
“Cellular automata are discrete dynamical systems with simple construction but complex self-organizing behaviour.”
“Cellular automata may be considered as discrete dynamical systems. In almost all cases, cellular automaton evolution is irreversible.”
“I want to talk about a big topic here today: the quest for computable knowledge.”
“Somehow we have to organize—systematize—knowledge to the point that we can build on it—compute from it.”
“The big idea that we know pretty much existed by 20,000 BC was that you could just abstractly count objects, independent of what the objects were.”
“It was the beginning of the tradition of exact science as we know it.”
“The fourth class is probably capable of universal computation, so that properties of its infinite time behaviour are undecidable.”
“Human language lets us describe much more, but it isn't systematic—it doesn't allow us to go directly from our knowledge to computing new things.”
“It didn't take long before numbers and writing led to kings in Babylon making pretty broad censuses of people and commodities.”
“People had known that there were regularities to be seen if not on earth, at least in the heavens.”