Wolfram on Computable Knowledge

Stephen Wolfram is a genius. (Ok, he's also a bit grandiose, self-promoting and arrogant, but I think he's amazing. Kind of like I feel about Ray Kurzweil, another genius IMHO.)

Wolfram|Alpha is his latest product, and it's a fascinating experiment. I can only imagine the work that has gone into it, both the Mathematica foundation and the data collection, cleansing and organization. In my own experimentation with the site, I have had mixed results. It's still growing up. I see the promise, and I am rooting for it. But for now it isn't that useful, for me, anyway.

Wolfram has written a very long and interesting treatise on Computable Knowledge as he calls it. I won't try to excerpt or summarize it. For people interested in mathematics and computation, or in Stephen Wolfram himself, it's worth reading. I really enjoyed it.Technorati Tags: mathematics, stephenwolfram

Originally posted on Jul 14, 2009. Reprinted courtesy of ReRuns plug-in.