Celebrating 35 Years of Mathematica

Join Stephen Wolfram as he celebrates the 35th anniversary of Mathematica, originally launched on June 23, 1988! Originally livestreamed at: https://twitch.tv/stephen_wolfram/ 00:00 Start stream 10:40 SW starts talking 11:09 What happened on June 23, 1988? 13:27 What was included in a V1.1 of Mathematica box? 21:23 Mac SE/30 computer running V1 of Mathematica 28:48 How to open a nb created on a Mac SE/30 on a modern Macbook? 41:49 Running a a nb created on a Mac SE/30 on a modern Macbook 43:34 A look forward and the timeless goal of Mathematica. 44:07 What are the essential primitives of computation and what led to the idea for Mathematica. 56:26 How does one make a notation for computation and the mission of Wolfram Language. 1:02:54 The nature of computational language. How Wolfram Language works with LLMs with new chat notebooks and Wolfram|Alpha. 1:06:41 Computational thinking and it's application. 1:17:33 What do you take for granted on your computer? 1:19:18 What do I need to know about the computational world? 1:22:05 The future and Computation X 1:23:30 Personal connection and use of Wolfram Language. Discussing the Physics Project and NKS. 1:35:09 If you had asked in 1988, "What would this all look like 35 years from now." How does it compare to what Mathematica is today. 1:39:26 In the early days of Mathematica (and perhaps even today), were most people used to thinking of programs procedurally? Can you talk about people's reaction to learning to do functional programming? 1:45:38 Was there any point in those 35 years where you said "OK, time to close up shop, this won't work"? 1:51:44 What went into the launch of Mathematica in 1988? Was it months/years of planning? 1:57:25 What aspect of Mathematica are you most proud of and how has it influenced your approach to problem-solving? 1:58:22 What are some updates to Mathematica that you are looking forward to or would like to see incorporated? 2:02:10 On page 498 of the original Mathematica book, it says "...Mathematica itself was written using an object-oriented extension of the C programming language". Anything interesting to say about that? 2:06:19 ​Why was the .ma extension changed to .nb? 2:09:02 I kinda miss old computers because they forced you to focus on the task at hand. 2:09:33 Will LLMs themselves carry the torch forward of making everything computational? Define their own useful symbolic expressions? 2:10:56 Have you ever, in the past 35 years, written some pen and paper mathematics... on paper? 2:12:39 What's the number one function you would like to add but seems unfeasible with the current technology? 2:15:46 What will you think Mathematica will be like in 10 years time? 2:16:18 What are some of the most unusual applications of Mathematica you have encountered? 2:27:02 How did you get the first funding to make Mathematica? Did you always know it would be successful? 2:33:27 ​Did you ever consider just working at Symbolics Inc. on Macsyma (or the like) instead of building your own tools? 2:43:07 100 years from now, how do you envision Wolfram's continued enhancements to Mathematica and other future computational languages - how will the organization continue? 2:47:16 The SE/30 was the first computer I used to run Mathematica. I had gotten it in April 1989, and had 8 Mbytes RAM. I later upped that to 20. 2:48:53 Do you see VR/AR in Mathematica's future? 2:50:05 It sounds hard to come from single computer computation to cloud like environment. 2:54:12 What are a few of the most important fundamentals of Wolfram Mathematica of which most people are unaware? What uses are there that you'd like to see better/more widely explored? Any favorite moments? 2:56:00 AI in the 70s must have been terrifying. 2:58:50 I think we'll get a pretty good AI Stephen to live on. He's left behind tens of thousands of hours of video. 2:59:56 The Stephen Bot will endure. 3:01:29 End stream Follow us on our official social media channels. Twitter: https://twitter.com/WolframResearch/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wolframresearch/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wolframresearch/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wolfram-research/ Stephen Wolfram's Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephen_wolfram/ Contribute to the official Wolfram Community: https://community.wolfram.com/ Stay up-to-date on the latest interest at Wolfram Research through our blog: https://blog.wolfram.com/ Follow Stephen Wolfram's life, interests, and what makes him tick on his blog: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/