Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Stephen Wolfram Radio Lecture

Posted by timothy on from the stuff-to-stick-in-your-ear dept.

Stephen Wolfram, subject of much discussion here, once known solely as the creator of Mathematica, now also known as the author of A New Kind of Science (/. review here), gave a lecture at Boston University this past spring on that book's subject matter. The audio of the lecture was broadcast this evening on the program World of Ideas on WBUR-FM out of Boston. If you don't live in the Boston area, if you missed the program, or if like me you were listening in your car while driving and found that two activites incompatible, the hour-long recording is also available for download in RealMedia format.

6 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Archive it! by brianjcain · · Score: 4, Informative

    vsound -t -s realplay $url | \
    sox -t .au - -t .wav - | \
    speexenc --vbr --nframes 4 --quality 7 Wolfram.spx

  2. Available for download?? by SN74S181 · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, it doesn't appear to be available for download.

    Will somebody please post a link to capture it in a format that will really be playable offline?

  3. mp3's available HERE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Bittorrent mp3s here

    You need of course bittorrent

    1. Re:mp3's available HERE by itsme1234 · · Score: 2, Informative

      But I've got it ! Very slow uplink, but better than nothing.

      http://but.sytes.net:6882/metainfo.torrent

  4. Here's a Video of his lecture by rochlin · · Score: 3, Informative
    You can watch it on video (he does the same lecture over and over). Here's a link to a realmedia Video

    http://webcast.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/UCSD_TV/7153.r m

    That's from the University of California Video archive. Lots of interesting stuff.

    --
    A beginners' guide to Portland, OR?
  5. ...not to be insensitive, but... by avi33 · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...at least in this case, I wouldn't say anything is 'out of reach' -- the gems of wisdom imparted in the lecture are available in his 6,000 page book that covers the subject. (ok, maybe 1,200 pages but you get the picture). If you're not familiar with the material, you can get a lot more from reading a critique of the book. If you are familiar, you pretty much sit there and wonder whatever made you think *you* were so smart.

    There is a lot of relevant content on a number of his websites...he kept telling us to read and re-read different sections of the book.

    I saw this lecture in Chicago, and it's not unlike walking off the street into a 400-level physics course. A brilliant professor walks in and immediately gets started, armed with a few powerpoint slides and ultradry jokes, he steamrolls through the first 300 pages of his book in 60 minutes. An audio stream of this isn't going to make or break your understanding on the subject.

    I imagine a sign language translator would have their hands full (so to speak) trying to keep up with him.