Stephen Wolfram needs your help to find the fundamental theory of physics
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A crowdsourced effort to find the fundamental theory of physics
By Shawn Knight
In a nutshell: Launching the project
in the midst of a global pandemic may seem almost “disrespectful” (his
words, not mine), but according to Wolfram, he also thought it could
serve as an “intellectual distraction.” And remember, Newton conducted
some of his best work while under quarantine during the bubonic plague.
Perhaps today’s modern minds – and by proxy, physics – can also benefit
from a bit of isolation?
Renowned physicist Stephen Wolfram has launched a crowdsourced
project to help identify the fundamental theory of physics and could use
your input.
In an extensive blog post
on the subject, Wolfram concedes that he doesn’t know if it’s going to
take a month, a year, a decade or a century to “find the specific rule
for our universe” but admits that just a few months ago, he didn’t even
know if he had the right framework for finding it. “But I wouldn’t say
that anymore,” he noted.
A lifelong physicist, Wolfram earned a PhD in particle physics from
the California Institute of Technology at the age of 20. In 2002, he
published A New Kind of Science, a best-selling book on computational systems. He would later go on to launch Wolfram Alpha,
a computational knowledge engine (or answer engine) that has been used
to power search engines like Microsoft Bing and DuckDuckGo.
His success in the field of computational language forced some of his
other interests to take a back seat. Last summer, however, two young
physicists attending Wolfram’s annual summer school convinced him that
he should further pursue his search for a truly fundamental theory of
physics.
Hence, the Wolfram Physics Project was born.
Those interested in delving deeper into the project – and perhaps
even contributing – can head over to the Wolfram Physics Project website
to get started. There, you’ll find a primer on the project as well as a registry of notable universe models, a discussion form and several other resources.
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