Stephen Wolfram Q&A

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Some collected questions and answers by Stephen Wolfram

Questions may be edited for brevity; see links for full questions.

February 6, 1998

From: Interview by David Stork, Hal's Legacy: 2001's Computer as Dream and Reality

Did you identify with any of the characters in 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Not really. At the time, I was young, and they all seemed quite old, and very American. Growing up in England, all that “Roger your plan to go EVA” stuff seemed pretty foreign to me. I guess I didn’t ever imagine talking jargon like that. One thing, though, was that I definitely was very interested in one day being able to interact with the kind of technology that was in the movie. At that time, though, I thought that meant that I’d have to join NASA or something. I’m sure I didn’t think about it in those terms, but I certainly didn’t imagine the kind of flattening of who has access to technology that’s actually happened.

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