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Burdening with expectations
Posted by Tony on 14th September 2010 at 15:36:23
In response to "Mathematica is unscientific" posted by toby on 14th September 2010 at 10:14:38
Wolfram does what he does for his own reasons. You are free to disagree with those reasons but you are also free to make use of that which he produces in whatever form he makes it available, as you are with anybody who contributes to the growth of thought, aka the (trans/post/)human project.

Unless Mathematica has changed completely over the years, one thing that Jordi seems to overlook is that it is designed to be used to expose the step by step logic of mathematical proof, although it is hardly surprising that most users prefer to just get to the answer as fast as possible using whatever short cuts have been added over the years. Over time it becomes ever harder to reopen such black boxes, though there are certainly times when we should.

While my disagreements of detail with Wolfram tend if anything to harden with time and divergent experience, I still recognise that his early cellular automata work, Mathematica and A New Kind of Science have all helped me on my own journey, though I've yet to make significant use of Alpha.

My own take is that as much as Mathematica has enabled Wolfram, it has also imprisoned him, most particularly is a fondness for formalism which is hard to justify post Godel. Arguably, he is also stuck a bit far down the slippery slopes of reductionism and determinism to fully appreciate emergent context.

But at least his chosen path has provided the resources to make his own choices. Avoiding those burdens of "success" may not always make it easier to pursue your own goals.

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"Mathematica is unscientific" - toby 10:14:38 14-Sep-10
Belated recovery even here - 23:18:19 09-Jan-11
Re: "Mathematica is unscientific" - GingerYeo 02:15:34 06-Nov-10
Be careful what you wish for - Tony 20:21:53 22-Sep-10
One rant deserves another - nif 02:44:10 15-Sep-10
Re: One rant deserves another - toby 01:51:31 17-Sep-10
Re: One rant deserves another - nif 22:18:53 17-Sep-10
Re: One rant deserves another - toby 00:27:39 21-Sep-10
Burdening with expectations - Tony 15:36:23 14-Sep-10
Re: Burdening with expectations - quad 02:45:43 28-Sep-10
Re: Burdening with expectations - toby 02:57:19 28-Sep-10
Re: Burdening with expectations - toby 01:53:54 17-Sep-10
Re: Burdening with expectations - nif 22:24:13 17-Sep-10
Re: Burdening with expectations - toby 00:31:36 21-Sep-10
Next Older Thread