Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/04/stephen-wolfram-explains-his.html
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This guy has party written all over him.
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“undisputed king of the computerites” ([according to] Rucker)
Was this in jest? Wolfram has provided some valuable contributions, granted, but not quite so much to justify his overblown ego. As a computerite myself, I absolutely do dispute his self-appointed importance.
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Wolfram should try turning off the computer and going for a walk outdoors. No infrastructure needed. I’ve been a computer nerd all my life (okay, I’m 72 and didn’t start until I was 20-ish), but never regretted getting away from technology and enjoying the wonders of nature. It’s very liberating.
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(Well… I am reading it, and referencing it… it’s a long-ass book!)
As much as I despise the cult of productivity and see it as one of the first walls that deserves to fall on the path away from capitalism, I absolutely grant that the guy gets a lot done. And considering that I’ve been working on ways to combine stationary cycling and mandatory reading, I am sympathetic to his efforts.
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I did not know the computerites were even a monarchy?
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So code up a coup d’etat by finding a computation that doesn’t fit into his “4 fundamental classes of computing” ontology!
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Oh yeah, ever since the Edict of 1972.
Problem is, the succession wars never ended. All those JavaScript frameworks are sad reminders of that…
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Confirmation that Stephen Wolfram is kind of a goober.
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I never realised being an egomaniacal litigious crank who claims credit for everything since the wheel required such discipline lol
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No Steve, the right way to use Mathematica is make your coauthor do it while you pace in front of the chalkboard.
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Gargoyles represent the embarrassing side of the Central Intelligence Corporation. Instead of using laptops, they wear their computers on their bodies, broken up into separate modules that hang on the waist, on the back, on the headset. They serve as human surveillance devices, recording everything that happens around them. Nothing looks stupider; these getups are the modern-day equivalent of the slide-rule scabbard or the calculator pouch on the belt, marking the user as belonging to a class that is at once above and far below human society. They are a boon to Hiro because they embody the worst stereotype of the CIC stringer. They draw all the attention.
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This sounds like golf - it ruins a nice walk.
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Yes, a computational monarchy.
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That’s addressed in the article. 
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But in this day and age, you could make a living doing that.
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A. Installs treadmill at computer desk to increase physical exercise while doing a desk job.
B. Ads slot to drawer so he doesn’t have to perform the tedious task of opening and closing it.
-_-
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