Stephen Wolfram

So one of the things you might ask is, is there a robust idea of computation?

Or does it matter that this computation is running in a Turing machine?

This computation is running in a CMOS silicon CPU.

This computation is running in a fluid system in the weather.

Those kinds of things.

Or is there a robust idea of computation that transcends the sort of detailed framework that it's running in?

Is there?

Yes.

I mean, it wasn't obvious that there was, so it's worth understanding the history and how we got to where we are right now.

Because to say that there is, is a statement in part about our universe.

It's not a statement about what is mathematically conceivable.

It's about what actually can exist for us.

We don't know yet.

The things that I'm trying to do about fundamental physics

may well lead to such a connection, but there is no known connection at this time.

Yeah, so I mean, let's tell a little bit of a historical story, okay?

So, you know, go back 150 years, people were making mechanical calculators of various kinds.

And, you know, the typical thing was you want an adding machine, you go to the adding machine store, basically.

You want a multiplying machine, you go to the multiplying machine store.

They're different pieces of hardware.