The First Killer App of NKS

{link » 7 years of NKS—and its first killer app}

“But here is the crucial point: because those computations are not part of what we have historically studied or discussed, no systematic tradition of human language exists to describe them. So when we use natural human language as input to Wolfram|Alpha, we are inevitably going to be describing that thin set of computations that have long linguistic traditions, and are computationally reducible. Those computations cover the traditional sciences. But in a sense it is the very ubiquity of computational irreducibility that forces there to be only small islands of computational reducibility — which can readily be identified even from quite vague linguistic input.

If one looks at Wolfram|Alpha today, much of what it computes is firmly based on OKS (the “Old Kind of Science”), and in this sense Wolfram|Alpha can be viewed as a shining example of what can be achieved with pre-NKS mathematical science. And curiously, after all these years, it is also perhaps the first clear consumerized example of universal computation at work. For now, for the first time, anyone will be able to walk up to a computer and immediately see just how diverse a range of possible computations it can do.

So what about NKS? NKS is certainly crucial to the very conceptualization of Wolfram|Alpha. And even today one can use Wolfram|Alpha to do a little NKS: one can type in "rule 30″, or ask about other NKS systems that can readily be specified in linguistic terms. But in the future there is tremendous opportunity to do more with NKS in Wolfram|Alpha. Today, Wolfram|Alpha uses existing models from science and other areas, then does computations based on these models. But what if it could find new models? What if it could invent on the fly? Do science on the fly? That is precisely what NKS suggests should be possible: exploring the computational universe on request, and finding things out there that are useful for some particular specified purpose.

Whether today’s computers are fast enough to do this well I do not know. But perhaps by next year, Wolfram|Alpha will not only be a killer app made possible by NKS — it will also provide an outlet for the full richness of the computational universe that has been revealed to us by NKS. But for now: tomorrow (May 15) is the day we begin to make Wolfram|Alpha live — the first killer app of NKS.”
 — Stephen Wolfram

Looks like Wolfram|Alpha launches tomorrow. Bon voyage!

Post #746 The First Killer App of NKS