Do Computers Byte?

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2011

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The march of computer technology continues. But as silicon chips and search engines become faster and more productive – can the same be said for us? The creator of Wolfram Alpha describes how his new “computational knowledge engine” is changing – and improving - how we process information. Meanwhile, suffering from data and distraction burnout? Find out what extremes some folks take to stop their search engines. Also, the Singularity sensation of humans merging with machines… and, why for the ancient Greeks all of this is “been there, done that.” A deep sea dive turns up a 2,000 year old computer! Guests: Jo Marchant - Freelance science journalist and author of Decoding the Heavens: A 2,000-Year-Old Computer-and the Century-Long Search to Discover Its Secrets Stephen Wolfram - Mathematican, computer programmer, and founder of Wolfram Research and Wolfram Alpha Fred Stutzman - PhD student at the University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science Peggy Orenstein - author and contributing editor to the New York Times Magazine, which is where we found her article “Stop Your Search Engines” Ray Kurzweil - Inventor, futurist and author, most recently, of The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:57.0	Hang on Molly, my iPhone GPS says a computer history museum should be around here somewhere.
1:05.6	It's here, we're right here. This is the entrance to the museum.
1:07.8	I thought we had to take another right around the corner here.
1:10.2	Well, great. Computer history museum here in Mount View, California, dedicated to preserving
1:15.2	stories and artifacts of the information age. I'm Seth Chaustadt.
1:20.0	And I'm Molly Bentley. Welcome to Are we alone. Computers are ubiquitous, so much so that even comments
1:25.2	on their ubiquity have become mundane and ubiquitous.
	...

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