Stephen Wolfram has set the ambitious goal of converting the global corpus of knowledge into a computable format through WolframAlpha.com, a computational knowledge engine rather than a search engine. WolframAlpha.com computes data and frequently renders query results into lists, charts, and graphs. "You get to ask WolframAlpha specific questions and it provides specific answers, rather than asking about some general topic and expecting it will do what search engines do, giving you a bunch of links about that topic," Wolfram says. He estimates that WolframAlpha can currently answer users' questions with more than 75 percent accuracy, and the system's linguistic comprehension capabilities are steadily improving. Wolfram says the long-term goal for WolframAlpha is to make as much globally accumulated knowledge computable as possible. One avenue being explored is the ability to upload one's own data to WolframAlpha and have it perform analysis on that data. "Another direction we are just starting to play with ... is being able to invent on the fly," Wolfram says.
See Also: Stephen Wolfram’s Latest Webcast Now Available Online
Recently (9/17), Stephen Wolfram Did a Live Q&A Webcast to Discuss Wolfram Alpha and Other Projects/Ideas.
You can watch an archived copy of the program here. It runs about 79 minutes.
The FreePint Family is a family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success.
'FreePint... provides most of my professional development because it won't come through work and [other resources] just don't cut it.'
FUMSI Forum: Do you have a research question? Post it to the FUMSI Forum, where professionals share Q&A and useful tips on how to Find, Use, Manage and Share Information. It's free.
FreePint Shop:
VIP LiveWire:
