What Is The Ruliad? | Stephen Wolfram

Robinson’s Podcast #102 - Stephen Wolfram: Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, and Philosophy of Math

Stephen Wolfram is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, and the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the Wolfram Language. He received his PhD in theoretical physics from Caltech when he was twenty years old. In addition to his work at the helm of Wolfram Research, he writes and researches widely across computer science, physics, mathematics, and more. Most recently, Stephen is the author of What Is ChatGPT Doing…and Why Does It Work? (2023). Robinson and Stephen begin by discussing just this, before moving on to some more theoretical questions about intelligence in general and artificial intelligence in particular. Then, after a long digression on the philosophy of mathematics and the foundations of computation, they turn to the ways in which ChatGPT may impact research in STEM fields and beyond.

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.

[glennpaquette]

I've listened to his talks many times. I've never learned anything of substance from him. He's really good at impressing the easily impressed.

[Ramkumar-ujfo]

Yes, you can view LLM output through a mathematical lens. The responses are generated based on probabilistic models and computations that encode patterns and structures from the training data. So, while the output is in natural language, its generation is fundamentally driven by mathematical processes.

ChatGPT

There is now Agent Smith like Mathematica.

[FunMushizzle]

This man is our generations Einstein, truly next level genius. Amazing you got him on your podcast, I wish you well growing your channel!

[adamsawyer]

With this sort of computational idea one has to ask what is the substrate on which the computations are occurring and by what means are the rules of each specific universe recorded/maintained/enforced?

If you think about this for very long you get to some funny places.

[DavidCoia-oo]

I would have asked Stephan Wolfram what form a ruliar transfer takes from one mind to another. Is there one form that is more efficacious than another.

[the.trollgubbe]

I know he believes there is only one universe, but why is theory about ruliad better than multiverses ?

[mykrahmaan]

This problem can be solved only by substituting the "thinkers own body" instead of the "Turing machine" and the 10 DIGITS (0...9) as "some kind of particles" that are operated by the 4 basic rules of arithmetic (+ × ÷ -) instead of electrons in the chips of the Turing machine, and then derive the mechanism how these DIGIT particles are moved inside the thinkers own body (say, from one particular eye with which the thinker visualizes it, to say, the skull, where the result of the calculation develops a hair). And if the thinker can repeat similar calculations to access any other part of own body and really observe that change happening (say, turn a particular grey hair into black), then that person can say with 100% certainty the particles han (she/he) assumed as the 10 DIGITS and the operations on them han performed are accurate.

Then han should be able to program the solid, liquid and gaseous substamces han releases to the surrounding to influence the development of, and growth on, PLANTS.

And through them other beings.

As the process must be identical for all humans the method should be transferable to others too, so that we can always cooperate to develop PLANTS in such ways that all beings can enjoy life terraforming and populating the eternally incrrasing celestial entities.

[JIMJAMSC]

He did a great job of making a some what confusing subject easy to understand.

[citris]

When Stephan Wolfram says the ruliad is all possible computational rules does he mean that some are possible are some are not? Is there a rule about which are possible?

[steveclark]

He forgot to mention the word Qualia, which would help make more sense of what he was trying to get across 😉

[stoppernz]

talking about branching in all directions with all possible rules sets....I had this idea about reality/the universe that its what you get when you start with everything and remove all the paradoxes

[WaliaIbex]

The cat is less bully than wolframe. I like the cat 😂😂😂

[Ramkumar-ujfo]

I am reading your ChatGPT book. They won. You did not pooh-pooh. I will understand why. ❤🎉



Yes, some people view Stephen Wolfram's work, especially his contributions through *A New Kind of Science* (NKS) and the Wolfram Language, as foundational to the development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Wolfram's approach emphasizes the idea that simple computational rules can generate complex behaviors, a concept that some believe could lead to AGI by discovering underlying rules that govern intelligence and cognition. His work in symbolic computation and cellular automata also provides tools that might be used in creating or understanding AGI systems.
ChatGPT

[drmedwuast]

Telling Stephen Wolfram that he's talking like a child is crazy

[oliverjamito]

Students will say, someone has to be LIVING 1ST?

[illogicmath]

I'm pretty sure Wolfram's ideas about the computational universe haven't been proven and peer reviewed yet.

Why aren't there more mainstream scientists that embrace Wolfram's ideas?

Could it be that it is because Wolfram is a billionaire and he doesn't care much (smug?) about having his work reviewed by his peers?"

Yes, he's a genius, no question about that. The capacity of Mathematica of solving integrals symbolically seems like magic to me. But the idea that the universe is computational seems to me that it implies there are hidden variables behind particles, which has been proven false.

So despite Wolfram being one of the greatest minds of our time, it is legitimate to have doubts about what he claims.

[jeffreyhowarth]

Electrons preserve their identity while moving through space. Could this means means tangent space only needs it's identity for a transformation (motion)?

[Ramkumar-ujfo]

I discovered that Transformers or ChatGPT are Query Key and Value matrix manipulation on Udemy.

Stephen Wolfram's *NKS* (New Kind of Science) cellular automata can be expressed as state matrices, with their behavior grounded in matrix algebra.


Matrix algebra is primarily computational, focusing on numerical operations rather than formal proofs.

The top language for high-performance computing (HPC) in AI today is Python.

[Ramkumar-ujfo]

Read your book. You are accepting ChatGPT. Thanks. Not a spat.


--

Stephen Wolfram, in *A New Kind of Science*, showed that simple computational rules, like cellular automata, could generate life-like behavior, suggesting that life could emerge from basic computational principles.

[victorgrauer]

He operates solely on the basis of analogies rather than truly scientific investigation based on testing. Amazing how he can skip directly from consideration of some "graph" he's managed to concoct to "the universe." How do so many let him get away with that sort of thing? There is NO evidence that his "ruliad" or any other thing he's concocted is associated with anything else at all.