Wolfram Alpha is set to change the way we view and access knowledge. It is already changing the way many architects, engineers and designers do their work.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, Wolfram Alpha is a self described 'answer engine'. The vision of Wolfram Alpha is to (as described on the site): "make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone."
The "About" section of the website goes on to say: "We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. Our goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries."

In a sentence: Wolfram Alpha wants to be a place where you can find out anything that can be computed. As an example, if I type in [Google Microsoft] I get a comparison between the two corporations. Wolfram Alpha interprets my input as a financial query (I can change this interpretation to an internet domain) and gives me a comparison of current share prices, market capitalization, number of employees, revenue per employee and much more. All of these resulting categories can be expanded on to give me even more info. I can then change Wolfram Alpha's interpretation to 'internet domain' and I have a comparison between Google and Microsoft's websites (google.com vs microsoft.com). I now have a description of each domain's owning entity, their location, daily page views, daily visitors and on and on.

Wolfram Alpha isn't just constrained to corporations by any means, remember, they are trying to make all computable information available. If I type in [H2O] (water), I get a 3D diagram of the compound's structure, its molecular weight, boiling point, density and so on.

If I punch in [16^2/33] it interprets that mathematical equation accurately and gives me the various ways it can be presented (as a decimal, as a mixed fraction etc). It is just as accurate with highly complex mathematics and can present answers and equations logarithmically. I'm not a mathematician's fingernail so won't get into that.

The brainchild of Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram Alpha shows some amazing promise

I personally think Wolfram Alpha has great application in the 3D world as well, it allows equations to be calculated accurately and quickly. When modeling a precise object, I can have Wolfram Alpha open to give me exact dimension calculations. I can also get the volume of an object from Sketchup, search the desired material in Wolfram Alpha and work out the actual weight of an object. I can also get tensile strengths of objects and perform strength analyzes on objects and work out breaking strains much faster and more easily.

Here is the first part of a two-part video series which exhibits this new tool's amazing capabilities well.

I think Wolfram Alpha is a fantastic concept and is proving to be executable in the real world which even Stephen Wolfram himself had doubts about, a great testimony to the organization's determination and vision of a potentially world changing product.

We were all amazed by Google and the way it 'changed the game' in the world of internet search engines. But all it gives you is web pages. The user has to judge relevance, trustworthiness of content, they often have to troll through results to find what you are looking for, and then perform calculations on the information found. Wolfram Alpha's greatness is not in what information it makes available (Google has cataloged almost all public information under the sun) but the way it makes information accessible. There must be some serious interpretation algorithms in there somewhere for it to accurately interpret some of the bizarre requests I gave it, go there now and try your own: www.wolframalpha.com

To discuss anything on this blog, or to make suggestions, email me at: ash@coastalconcepts.org