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I would like to take this amazing opportunity to tell anyone who doesn't know about WolframAlpha to go give it a shot. Shortest, simplest description I can giv

by O_H_E 7y ago

I would like to take this amazing opportunity to tell anyone who doesn't know about WolframAlpha to go give it a shot. Shortest, simplest description I can give is that it is the best AI-less science-heavy digital brain out there. Or as Wikipedia puts it "a computational knowledge engine". https://wolframalpha.com https://wolframalpha.com Edit: apparently Siri and Alexa sometimes query WolframAlpha.

wjsetzer 7y ago
While Wolfram alpha got me through Cal 2, why are you plugging it here?
- slavik81 7y ago
  WolframAlpha includes a lot of Mathematica features and many uses are free-as-in-beer. For example,it can evaluate Mathematica expressions like Series[x - n Sin[x], {x,0,5}]. http://m.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Series%5Bx+-+n+Sin%5Bx%5D%2C+%7Bx%2C0%2C5%7D%5D http://m.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Series%5Bx+-+n+Sin%5Bx%5D...
starpilot 7y ago
There's this search engine called Google too, it's really accurate.
zwegner 7y ago
And I'd like to plug my favorite twitter account, Wolfram|Alpha Can't: https://mobile.twitter.com/wacnt/ https://mobile.twitter.com/wacnt/ It's a collection of queries that an AI could answer in theory, but are (probably) far beyond current technology. The questions are generally just super interesting. Here's a few recent samples: "derivative of the shore length of Tasmania with respect to ocean depth" "total area enclosed by whole notes in a typical printing of the Brandenburg Concertos" "total duration of watch adjustments made by people changing time zones per day, if everyone had a watch and adjusted it" "volume of ink saved by the Times per year if they switched to American spelling"
- harshreality 7y ago
  I think those questions are just an attempt to be silly. Most of those questions are poorly specified, if you think about them, or they're trick questions with trivial answers (like zero) in some cases. Then there's the occasional question that could be answered, not just by some future AI, but even current WolframAlpha if it had the right dataset. Like this: > minimum distance between a place with a 2-letter name and Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Thought it's unclear if the intent is great-circle distance or 3d distance. If there's any doubt that plenty of these are intended to be silly questions... > focal length of the Eye of Sauron
  - zwegner 7y ago
    They're certainly meant to be entertaining. I really don't think they're meant purely as jokes, though. And which are the trick questions with trivial answers? I can't recall seeing any of those. Any question that is poorly specified can generally be augmented with reasonable assumptions or approximations, so that an AI could potentially give an answer. W|A is a natural language interface after all, and seeing all the "W|A can" posts on the account shows that it can certainly answer questions that don't have a precise mathematical definition. The intent behind each question is usually clear to me, and to have an AI that is useful to humans, we expect the AI to infer this intent and make reasonable assumptions. Even "focal length of the Eye of Sauron" could conceivably be given a rough answer from estimates of the eye's geometry (either from descriptions in the books, or a visual comparison with other objects of approximately-known size in the movie). The interesting part of the account IMO is thinking through how a hypothetical AI might answer each question. Take the latest question, "derivative of the shore length of Tasmania with respect to ocean depth". This is poorly specified in that "Tasmania" only exists for ocean depths that are low enough to not completely cover it and high enough to not have another land mass connect to it, and I'm sure there's tons of other assumptions that humans would implicitly make in answering a question like that. But the topography of the Earth is approximately known, and I can see how a rough answer could be calculated. Thinking through these assumptions, and comparing current technology with what we'd expect from an AGI, is quite illuminating, and is what makes that Twitter account so awesome IMO.
edjroot 7y ago
You can also get a few extra features on the mobile app, such as step-by-step solutions, if you pay a very small, one-time value (not sure how much).

by O_H_E 7y ago

wjsetzer 7y ago

While Wolfram alpha got me through Cal 2, why are you plugging it here?

slavik81 7y ago
WolframAlpha includes a lot of Mathematica features and many uses are free-as-in-beer. For example,it can evaluate Mathematica expressions like Series[x - n Sin[x], {x,0,5}]. http://m.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Series%5Bx+-+n+Sin%5Bx%5D%2C+%7Bx%2C0%2C5%7D%5D http://m.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Series%5Bx+-+n+Sin%5Bx%5D...

starpilot 7y ago

There's this search engine called Google too, it's really accurate.

zwegner 7y ago

And I'd like to plug my favorite twitter account, Wolfram|Alpha Can't: https://mobile.twitter.com/wacnt/ https://mobile.twitter.com/wacnt/ It's a collection of queries that an AI could answer in theory, but are (probably) far beyond current technology. The questions are generally just super interesting. Here's a few recent samples: "derivative of the shore length of Tasmania with respect to ocean depth" "total area enclosed by whole notes in a typical printing of the Brandenburg Concertos" "total duration of watch adjustments made by people changing time zones per day, if everyone had a watch and adjusted it" "volume of ink saved by the Times per year if they switched to American spelling"

harshreality 7y ago
I think those questions are just an attempt to be silly. Most of those questions are poorly specified, if you think about them, or they're trick questions with trivial answers (like zero) in some cases. Then there's the occasional question that could be answered, not just by some future AI, but even current WolframAlpha if it had the right dataset. Like this: > minimum distance between a place with a 2-letter name and Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Thought it's unclear if the intent is great-circle distance or 3d distance. If there's any doubt that plenty of these are intended to be silly questions... > focal length of the Eye of Sauron
- zwegner 7y ago
  They're certainly meant to be entertaining. I really don't think they're meant purely as jokes, though. And which are the trick questions with trivial answers? I can't recall seeing any of those. Any question that is poorly specified can generally be augmented with reasonable assumptions or approximations, so that an AI could potentially give an answer. W|A is a natural language interface after all, and seeing all the "W|A can" posts on the account shows that it can certainly answer questions that don't have a precise mathematical definition. The intent behind each question is usually clear to me, and to have an AI that is useful to humans, we expect the AI to infer this intent and make reasonable assumptions. Even "focal length of the Eye of Sauron" could conceivably be given a rough answer from estimates of the eye's geometry (either from descriptions in the books, or a visual comparison with other objects of approximately-known size in the movie). The interesting part of the account IMO is thinking through how a hypothetical AI might answer each question. Take the latest question, "derivative of the shore length of Tasmania with respect to ocean depth". This is poorly specified in that "Tasmania" only exists for ocean depths that are low enough to not completely cover it and high enough to not have another land mass connect to it, and I'm sure there's tons of other assumptions that humans would implicitly make in answering a question like that. But the topography of the Earth is approximately known, and I can see how a rough answer could be calculated. Thinking through these assumptions, and comparing current technology with what we'd expect from an AGI, is quite illuminating, and is what makes that Twitter account so awesome IMO.

edjroot 7y ago

You can also get a few extra features on the mobile app, such as step-by-step solutions, if you pay a very small, one-time value (not sure how much).