#89 – Stephen Wolfram: Cellular Automata, Computation, and Physics

Stephen Wolfram is a computer scientist, mathematician, and theoretical physicist who is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, a company behind Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha, Wolfram Language, and the new Wolfram Physics project. He is the author of several books including A New Kind of Science, which on a personal note was one of the most influential books in my journey in computer science and artificial intelligence. Support this podcast by signing up with these sponsors: – ExpressVPN at https://www.expressvpn.com/lexpod – Cash App – use code “LexPodcast” and download: – Cash App (App Store): https://apple.co/2sPrUHe – Cash App (Google Play): https://bit.ly/2MlvP5w EPISODE LINKS: Stephen’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephen_wolfram Stephen’s Website: https://www.stephenwolfram.com/ Wolfram Research Twitter: https://twitter.com/WolframResearch Wolfram Research YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/WolframResearch Wolfram Research Website: https://www.wolfram.com/ Wolfram Alpha: https://www.wolframalpha.com/ A New Kind of Science (book): https://amzn.to/34JruB2 This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter , LinkedIn , Facebook , Medium , or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts , follow on Spotify , or support it on Patreon . Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. OUTLINE: 00:00 – Introduction 04:16 – Communicating with an alien intelligence 12:11 – Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey 29:06 – What is computation? 44:54 – Physics emerging from computation 1:14:10 – Simulation 1:19:23 – Fundamental theory of physics 1:28:01 – Richard Feynman 1:39:57 – Role of ego in science 1:47:21 – Cellular automata 2:15:08 – Wolfram language 2:55:14 – What is intelligence? 2:57:47 – Consciousness 3:02:36 – Mortality 3:05:47 – Meaning of life