Future of Science & Technology Q&A (January 19, 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: Can AI be swallowed by more advanced AI by feeding it via "virtual" input? The motivation could be the increased efficiency of "larger" AI. - Do you think anyone will solve the Riemann hypothesis in your lifetime? ​​​- Aren't there thousands upon thousand of written papers that assume the Riemann hypothesis is true? - Will AIs be the ones to explore space? - ​It's ​4.37 light years to Alpha Centauri. - We should harness light/light waves so that we can take a picture of the planets there, then bring them back and produce pictures in 8+ years. - Do you think Ray Kurzweil's longevity predictions are likely to happen in our own lifetime? - Would it make sense for alien AI civilizations to broadcast radio or other signals with information on how to build such AI as a way to propagate in the universe faster than material space travel? - People automatically assume that AI will create this type of step function upward in everything in the world or in the economy. This may not be the case due to diminishing returns.