Future of Science & Technology Q&A (April 12, 2024)

The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Questions include: What features will humans evolve in the future? Will we one day be able to look at the Sun with our naked eye? - What is there to say about the future of philosophy? It feels like such an ancient study. - ​​If empirical evidence indicates that there is a finite, digital, physical multiverse, then will the practice and philosophy of mathematics undergo huge changes? - Are all philosophers logicians? - Will we ever find a cure for the common cold? - Could that end up messing up our immune systems because they've always fought colds? - What about the possibility of injecting tiny computers into our blood cells? - Topically, you may remember a boom in nanotech ~20 years or so ago, including nano-robotics research labs and a subsequent bust of a sort. Where is that nanotech boom/bust cycle now and looking ahead? - For nanotech to really take off will require new foundational building blocks, mostly from a convergence of biotechnology and electronics research. We see glimpses of that from DNA sequencing/printing. - What do you foresee in terms of substrates of the future for computation? In the medium term? Long term? - Does the success of one field sometimes slow down other research fields?