Institute Output
Expression Evaluation and Fundamental Physics
Stephen Wolfram
It is shown that way the Wolfram Language rewrites and evaluates expressions mirrors the universe’s own evolution: both proceed through discrete events linked by causal relationships, form “spacetime-like” structures and branch into multiway histories analogous to quantum superpositions.
We’ve Got a Science Opportunity Overload: It’s Time to Launch the Wolfram Institute!
Stephen Wolfram
We’re in the midst of a major “science opportunity overload”. And to be good stewards of the ideas and their potential we’ve got to scale things up. I’ve had lots of experience over decades in making big projects happen. And now it’s time to take that experience and define a new structure to move forward the amazing science opportunity we find ourselves with. And I think that leaves us no choice: we’ve got to launch the Wolfram Institute, and now!
The Physicalization of Metamathematics and Its Implications for the Foundations of Mathematics
Stephen Wolfram
One of the many surprising (and to me, unexpected) implications of our Physics Project is its suggestion of a very deep correspondence between the foundations of physics and mathematics. We might have imagined that physics would have certain laws, and mathematics would have certain theories, and that while they might be historically related, there wouldn’t be any fundamental formal correspondence between them.
But what our Physics Project suggests is that underneath everything we physically experience there is a single very general abstract structure—that we call the ruliad—and that our physical laws arise in an inexorable way from the particular samples we take of this structure.
Why Does the Universe Exist? Some Perspectives from Our Physics Project
Stephen Wolfram
Why does the universe exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? These are old and fundamental questions that one might think would be firmly outside the realm of science. But to my surprise I’ve recently realized that our Physics Project may shed light on them, and perhaps even show us the way to answers.
Multiway Turing Machines
Stephen Wolfram
Over the years I’ve studied the simplest ordinary Turing machines quite a bit, but I’ve barely looked at multiway Turing machines (also known as nondeterministic Turing machines or NDTMs). Recently, though, I realized that multiway Turing machines can be thought of as “maximally minimal” models both of concurrent computing and of the way we think about quantum mechanics in our Physics Project. So now this piece is my attempt to “do the obvious explorations” of multiway Turing machines.
How We Got Here: The Backstory of the Wolfram Physics Project
Stephen Wolfram
I’ve been saying it for decades: “Someday I’m going to mount a serious effort to find the fundamental theory of physics.” Well, I’m thrilled that today “someday” has come, and we’re launching the Wolfram Physics Project. And getting ready to launch this project over the past few months might be the single most intellectually exciting time I’ve ever had. So many things I’d wondered about for so long getting solved. So many exciting moments of “Surely it can’t be that simple?” And the dawning realization, “Oh my gosh, it’s actually going to work!”
Finally We May Have a Path to the Fundamental Theory of Physics… and It’s Beautiful
Stephen Wolfram
It’s unexpected, surprising—and for me incredibly exciting. To be fair, at some level I’ve been working towards this for nearly 50 years. But it’s just in the last few months that it’s finally come together. And it’s much more wonderful, and beautiful, than I’d ever imagined.