Stephen Wolfram

Stephen Wolfram (born 1959-08-29) is a British scientist known for his work in theoretical particle physics, cellular automata, complexity theory, and computer algebra. He is the creator of the computer program Mathematica.

Computing a Theory of Everything

• I had a very selfish reason for building Mathematica. I wanted to use it myself, a bit like Galileo got to use his telescope four hundred years ago. But I wanted to look, not at the astronomical universe, but at the computational universe.

• It's always seemed like a big mystery how nature, seemingly so effortlessly, manages to produce so much that seems to us so complex. Well, I think we found its secret. It's just sampling what's out there in the computational universe.

• ...and so on.

• Could it be that some place out there in the computational universe, we might find our physical universe?

• I'm committed to seeing this project done. To see if within this decade we can finally hold in our hands the rule for our universe, and know where our universe lies in the space of all possible universes.

• I think Computation is destined to be the defining idea of our future.

About Stephen Wolfram

• There’s a tradition of scientists approaching senility to come up with grand, improbable theories. Wolfram is unusual in that he’s doing this in his 40s.
  • Freeman Dyson

External links

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/stephen_wolfram_computing_a_theory_of_everything.html