History of Science & Technology Q&A (November 2, 2022)

Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Questions include: Do you think that in the future, people will look at our societal interest in math and science the same way we view alchemists and theologians of old? - Tell us about the history of chess computers and the approaches they used before deep learning. - Can you talk about the history of software packaging and distribution? - My brain came online around the time we needed two CDs for games, and I thought that was a pain. - I might be misremembering, but I think we put a piece of masking tape on floppy disks to circumvent copy protection. - I would love your thoughts on internet pseudonymity and its history! - How has the "central hub" of science changed geographically over time, and what may be the reasons for this change? - There is obviously a link between training clergymen (the original role of most Western universities) and the growth of early modern science. - Any thoughts on different methods of storing information in terms of resilience over long timescales? - Cuneiform is mostly only preserved because it was stamped in clay tablets. All the really "good stuff" (science, poetry, etc.) was usually written on biological material like hides and papyrus and, obviously, they didn't age that well. - Paper Dutch East India Company records from 1600-1700 still exist today. - In light of the recent law requiring free access to all federally funded research (and associated data), can you talk about how scientific knowledge and data have been shared throughout history?