wolfram alpha

they should integrate this with cleverbot

Eh, Google will just buy them and we'll all be fine

This shit is awesome

i was going to post that. i like how the engineer comes right out and says "all kinds of stuff could go wrong".

i keep hearing conflicting stuff. Does anyone know when this is definitely going to be online?

(unless it explodes)

i just got on a few minutes ago. I just clicked the link to someone's result page and then typed my own question

my first

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=tell+...mp;equal=Submit

i got on for a second then got kicked :(

weather in toronto on the day i was born:

have you had any luck when click 'more'

skynet is go

  Rambo said:

have you had any luck when click 'more'

i haven't got that to work. i'm using a back door, the front page is still broken, and they don't seem to know it. the live broadcast is pretty funny, wolfram is saying "why is it not working" over and over, and no one is giving him answers..

typed in skynet and got this

front page just went live here.

  chaosmachine said:

  Rambo said:

have you had any luck when click 'more'

 

i haven't got that to work. i'm using a back door, the front page is still broken, and they don't seem to know it. the live broadcast is pretty funny, wolfram is saying "why is it not working" over and over, and no one is giving him answers..

i'm hearing it. it just let me on through the main page btw!

just mentioned working slowly in liverpool uk. That's me. I'm the only person alive in Liverpool.

doesn't seem to know how much farts weigh

What is the plot ratio of my nuts to your chin?

typed moon

got 'current distance from earth 250 092 mi'

then a minute later it was 250 090 mi So it's got live data obviously

I've been waiting half hour for my results....

i guess its early days for Wolfram Alpha but its build on top of Mathematica and thats a good sign

i did my degree project on Mathematica 15 years ago, and it was an absolutely amazing product even then; function programming, rule based programming, object oriented programming, all wrapped up in a mind boggling symbolic manipulator that could just do stuff like integrate and differentiate complex equations in a flash. And that was 15 years ago.

check this shit

typed drunk drive

it didn't know what to do http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=drunk+drive

then typed am i too drunk too drive? and it understood

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=am+i+...unk+to+drive%3F

whilst a completely user-dictated model would be a bad thing here (3 hours after launch a crack team of mudkip enthusiasts ensure EVERYONE lieks mudkipz), i think allowing some degree of user control could be very beneficial in terms of growing the knowledge base:

> blue monday

Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input blue monday:

Help | Back | Associate

*chooses *Associate*

Please enter a term for Wolfram|Alpha to associate with 'blue monday'

*enters 'new order'*

Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input new order:

Help | Back | Associate

*chooses Associate*

Please enter a term for Wolfram|Alpha to associate with 'new order'

*enters 'manchester'*

wolfram alpha knows what manchester is.

it displays information about manchester, and perhaps asks the user about what subcategory of life in manchester 'blue monday' and 'new order' fall under. this will generate two new nodes, and also flag those nodes for peer review.

maybe the user enters madchester;

if it's somewhat smart, WA recognises the term from previous entries, as well as simultaneously recognising that the word is very similar in spelling to manchester. if it's really smart, it will recognise that despite the similarity, it is not the same thing. if it's completely on point, it might direct you to a subnode concerning music in manchester, or if not, confirm that this is what you're on about.

the next time a user enters 'blue monday', wolfram alpha will recognize it, and have a new node (in this case, two) to work off. it can use the opportunity to learn more about 'blue monday', as well as possibly 'new order' and maybe even something about 'manchester'.

but it's all flagged - nothing makes it out into the knowledge base that WA uses without approval by a human being with pieces of paper that say he knows loads of stuff about a particular thing.

yup, what i propose is essentially a merge with citizendium (deeply unfashionable), or it could even be considered a peer-reviewed expert system (deeply, deeply unfashionable) - but some user feedback could really speed the development of this beast up.