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In this episode, I speak with Stephen Wolfram—creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Language—about a “new kind of science” that treats the universe as computation. We explore computational irreducibility, discrete space, multi-way systems, and how the observer shapes the laws we perceive—from the second law of thermodynamics to quantum mechanics. Wolfram reframes Feynman diagrams as causal structures, connects evolution and modern AI through coarse fitness and assembled “lumps” of computation, and sketches a nascent theory of biology as bulk orchestration. We also discuss what makes science good: new tools, ruthless visualization, respect for history, and a field he calls “ruliology”—the study of simple rules, where anyone can still make real contributions. This is basically a documentary akin to The Life and Times of Stephen Wolfram. I hope you enjoy it.
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Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e.
Timestamps:
- 00:00 — How Does One Actually Do Good Science?
- 06:15 — Heisenberg Got Stuck: Why Physics Abandoned Discrete Space.
- 12:08 — Computational “Animals” Are Always Smarter Than We Are.
- 20:43 — The Ruliad: Why Humans Are More Central to Physics Than I Imagined.
- 26:44 — Wolfram’s Method: A Fusion of Philosophy and Irrefutable Computation.
- 32:26 — A Deeper Theory of Feynman Diagrams (What Dick Feynman Missed)
- 38:39 — The True Origin of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
- 46:55 — Is a Foundational Theory of Biology Even Possible?
- 53:24 — My 40-Year Failed Experiment That Finally Worked (Thanks to AI)
- 1:00:16 — Toward a “Theory of Bulk Orchestration” for All Evolved Systems.
- 1:05:40 — The Strategic Weakness in Scientific Fields (And How to Exploit It)
- 1:10:11 — Why Spacetime Was a Foundational Mistake.
- 1:16:01 — What is Economic Value? My Theory of Computational Reducibility.
- 1:22:46 — What is Science? (And What is Bad Science?)
- 1:32:43 — The Art of Scientific Visualization (And The Spherical Snowflake Mistake)
- 1:40:42 — How YOU Can Genuinely Contribute to Science (Ruleology)