Tech Stream

Wolfram Alpha

19 May 2009

Photo from Flickr by Howzey.

What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything? Could it be 42? That is what the super-computer Deep Thought suggested in Douglas Adam’s classic book and radio series Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Funnily enough when you ask Wolfram Alpha, a brand new computational search engine the same question it also suggests the same answer: 42.  Programmers having a bit of a laugh? Possibly.  But based on the available data this is quite possibly the only answer within the many terabytes of data available to it.  As Reuters reports:

Unlike Google (GOOG), which scans keywords in a search query and offers you thousands of ranked Web sites that might contain the information you’re looking for, Wolfram Alpha reads your question in natural language, scans its own databases, and gives you the answer.

The current questions it is very good at answering are ones that rely on this firm data and computations, but the creators think that “eventually you should be able to ask it about essentially any kind of systematic factual knowledge” and receive an answer.  Its worth trying out Wolfram Alpha for yourself and let us know what you think. Here’s some fun things to ask it:  what are you? whats your name? how old are you? who made you?