Future of Science and Technology Q&A (January 5, 2024)

Stephen Wolfram hosts an unscripted Ask Me Anything about the future of science and technology for all ages. Find the playlist of Q&A's here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Originally livestreamed at: https://twitch.tv/stephen_wolfram If you missed the original livestream of this episode, feel free to submit a question you would like Stephen to answer in a future Q&A livestream here: https://wolfr.am/12cczmv5J 00:00 Start stream 3:02 SW starts talking 3:21-23:59 What scientific breakthroughs would you like to in 2024? 24:06-26:59 Whatever happened to graphene, is it still a viable product of future technologies? 27:06-32:10 Could we build "bio-vehicles"? e.g. instead of batteries, use synthetic adipose tissue which is ~50-100x more mass efficient per kWh. (is there a future in bio-batteries?) 32:17-33:40 Based on the level of computational advances this last decade, with the trend only showing even more of the same, do you think that traditional engineering disciplines will be relegated to the OpenLLM? 33:44-34:53 Do you think we'll see mass-producible room-temperature super conductors in the next decade? 34:57-37:41 ​It has been suggested that AI will displace coders/programmers. Do you think AI might also replace many physical and chemical experiments? 37:44-42:04 Any thoughts on "zero knowledge proofs", i.e. the ability to make proofs without revealing details? 42:09-44:05 Given that some of our greatest accomplishments as a species has been when we mimic nature, how important do you think Biomimetics is going forward? 44:08-49:08 Can you see the time when the discovery of new mathematical theorems and axioms will be generated from AIs? 49:20-51:44 When Betelgeuse explodes, will humans be okay? 51:49-53:30 Do you think smart textiles / computing fabrics will take off? Or be viable? Would you wear say a sweater to hear instead of a hearing aid? 53:37-57:32 But things like math, geometry. and especially tessellation have patterns that are universally implicit and can be interpreted to be interesting by their own existence and not just the humanity view upon them. 57:38-1:00:12 Is there a way we can use brownian motion at a molecular scale as a type of fingerprint for nano sensors to create things that are piracy proof? 1:00:17-1:00:53 why are the axioms of mathematics necessarily the ones that are effective at describing things we see as well? 1:00:59-1:04:36 What do things like dreams and "higher states if consciousness" spoken about in eastern philosophies tell us about ourselves as Observers 1:04:46-1:06:09 Would it be easy to have an AI remaster old movies, real ones and cartoons, so we can watch all the old gems in highend graphics? 1:06:16-1:07:38 'Interesting' is defined by a 'coolness' threshold. 1:07:41-1:15:30 Since the scientific paradigm was a major cause for the Enlightenment can we expect the (multi)computational paradigm to kick off a socio-philosophical paradigm of comparable importance? 1:15:32-1:18:51 If someone Invented calculus in the stone age it would probably have not been used for anything...do you think there are some ideas that may be "rediscovered" because they have a better use? 1:19:32 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/