Faster than other search engines run on a Tablet PC. It’s not science fiction.
Wolfram|Alpha looks like a search engine. According to Stephen Wolfram, “(It’s) about how we might build the edifice of human knowledge from simple primitive computational rules.”
There’s a one-line box where you type in a question, just as with other search engines. The output appears a second or two later, as a page of text and graphics below the box.
Rather than looking up the answer to your question, Wolfram|Alpha figures out what your question means, looks up the necessary data to answer your question, computes an answer, designs a page to present the answer in a pleasing way, and sends the page back to your computer.
He thinks Wolfram|Alpha is commercially feasible, “… the data structures, the curating of data, and the hardware infrastructures to answer people’s questions on the fly. We’re right at a historical moment where this … finally becomes feasible.”
“Rather than just searching for the best algorithms for things like understanding user input, we want to start searching for the best models for a given field. A model is a kind of algorithm for predicting results from existing data. And we’d like to start finding these models on the fly. Once again, the issue is not to emulate humans, but rather to bulldoze a shortest path to an answer.”
I wonder what educators and education software developers think of this search engine. This is a must read interview for those interested in ways that advancing technologies will reshape education venues.
Thanks, Rudy Rucker, for your intriguing interview with Stephen. As you say about yourself, this guy’s ideas turn lives and thinking around. They clarify for me the relevance of continuing to develop my NESI program. While it’s not in the same league, I use primitive versions of his model.
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