Stephen Wolfram Q&A

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Some collected questions and answers by Stephen Wolfram

Questions may be edited for brevity; see links for full questions.

January 5, 2010

From: Interview by Gregory T. Huang, Xconomy

From a technology standpoint, what’s next for Wolfram|Alpha?

In Wolfram|Alpha, a lot of what it works out is “old science” based. There is an existing model for such and such economic process [for example]. These models are based on equations and mathematical kinds of things. But can we not only compute on the fly, can we also invent and create on the fly? That brings us into the world of searching programs and NKS. I simply don’t know if today’s computers are fast enough to pull this off in a useful way. We have created musical forms using this, and it has been picked up by serious composers. But there are lots of domains. Until you try it, you really don’t know. There’s a tremendous range of applications and lots of different business directions. My priority right now is trying to ramp up our business.

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