Wolfram|Alpha is Ridiculous
Thanks to Kiyoshi for alerting me to tonight’s debut of Wolfram|Alpha, a new way of searching and organizing data that will change our (Internet) lives. Wolfram|Alpha can compute a nearly infinite number of data requests. I love data, so perhaps I am exaggerating the importance of Wolfram|Alpha, but I don’t think it can be exaggerated. This engine is already ridiculous and it will only get more ridiculous in the future. Wolfram happens to be a Champaign guy. His company has its headquarters here. I was fortunate enough to hear Wolfram lecture on his book, A New Kind of Science, at Foellinger Auditorium when I was a Freshman. His lecture shocked me. He’s a genius. I shook his hand in awe.
Tonight Wolfram and his team will debut the first practical fruits of his book. All you need to do is watch this introduction to Wolfram|Alpha to be convinced. The engine will debut tonight at 7pm CST at this link. The Wolfram|Alpha blog has lots of other information as well. Here is a techy article that tries to explain Wolfram|Alpha.
The video below is a lengthy presentation that Wolfram gave at Harvard. It is worth watching:
Comment by Allan Niemerg on 19 May 2009 at 11:48 pm:
The only thing that is ridiculous is the hype around this product. Like “A New Kind Of Science”, Wolfram is once again over-hyping and under-delivering. Sure, all the things he shows in the video are nice, but many of them could be done just as easily in Google, or in other software.
I could muster evidence to prove this point, but instead, I’ll just ask Wolfram Alpha.
Q: Does Wolfram Alpha live up to the hype?
Wolfram|Alpha: Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.
I’m not surprised.
Comment by Billy Joe Mills on 25 May 2009 at 1:12 pm:
hahahaha thanks allan. i agree that i was disappointed with its functionality. however, it is less about what it can currently do and more about what it could do in the future. it has huge potential and i believe it is here to stay.