Comments on: This Will Change Things http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2009/05/04/this-will-change-things/ A web site by Joshua Sowin that addresses culture, books, technology, ecology, religion, and other topics. Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:20:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Max Cascone http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2009/05/04/this-will-change-things/comment-page-1/#comment-101311 Max Cascone Tue, 12 May 2009 14:24:05 +0000 http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2009/05/04/this-will-change-things/#comment-101311 A long long long time ago I read a sci-fi short story about a man who kills his wife with an untraceable mixture of household chemicals. He found the formula by asking a computer "How to kill a blonde and leave no trace" or something like that, and the computer did all the searching and cross-referencing and came up with the answer. I can't remember the author or the title of the story, but this sounds remarkably similar to that machine, which of course was almost unimaginable at that time except by forward-thinking sci-fi writers. Does anyone know the name of the story and/or the author? I'm thinking now that it may have been Vonnegut, but I may be making that up. A long long long time ago I read a sci-fi short story about a man who kills his wife with an untraceable mixture of household chemicals. He found the formula by asking a computer “How to kill a blonde and leave no trace” or something like that, and the computer did all the searching and cross-referencing and came up with the answer. I can’t remember the author or the title of the story, but this sounds remarkably similar to that machine, which of course was almost unimaginable at that time except by forward-thinking sci-fi writers. Does anyone know the name of the story and/or the author? I’m thinking now that it may have been Vonnegut, but I may be making that up.

]]> By: Oliver http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2009/05/04/this-will-change-things/comment-page-1/#comment-100673 Oliver Wed, 06 May 2009 05:12:30 +0000 http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2009/05/04/this-will-change-things/#comment-100673 Saw this post and wanted to pass along what seems to be the <a href="http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/2009/04/28/berkman-stephen-wolfram-wolframalphacom/" title="live blogging Wolfram Alpha Demo" rel="nofollow">best look at Wolfram Alpha</a> to date, from a demo at <a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/" title="harvard berkman center" rel="nofollow">Harvard's Berkman center</a>. Impressive, but I wonder how much the actual product vs. the hyped product will really change things. "A New Kind of Science" generated a lot of discussion for a while, and then fizzled out. Saw this post and wanted to pass along what seems to be the best look at Wolfram Alpha to date, from a demo at Harvard’s Berkman center.

Impressive, but I wonder how much the actual product vs. the hyped product will really change things. “A New Kind of Science” generated a lot of discussion for a while, and then fizzled out.

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