CONRAD WOLFRAM

Maths is fundamentally a different process in education than it is in the real world. There is an insistence that we do maths by hand when most of it is done by computers. The idea that you have to do everything by hand before you can operate a computer is nonsense.

One thing is for sure: most of the people admitting candidates to universities for technical subjects are pretty dissatisfied with the level of math education.

Computers do the calculating to allow people to transform the world.

Answers are what we are trying to get at; search is a process by which you may be able to get answers, but it's not the end goal. It's a mechanism.

Every math curriculum in the world is based on the idea of hand-calculating, and most of what you're teaching is how to calculate. And I think the resistance to this is very variable.

Maths should be more practical and more conceptual, but less mechanical.

Calculating does not equal mathematics. It's a subsection of it. In years gone by it was the limiting factor, but computers now allow you to make the whole of mathematics more intellectual.

Any tool can be used badly.

I couldn't tell you in any detail how my computer works. I use it with a layer of automation.

I couldn't tell you in any detail how my computer works. I use it with a layer of automation.

Every math curriculum in the world is based on the idea of hand-calculating, and most of what you're teaching is how to calculate. And I think the resistance to this is very variable.

Maths should be more practical and more conceptual, but less mechanical.

Computers do the calculating to allow people to transform the world.

One thing is for sure: most of the people admitting candidates to universities for technical subjects are pretty dissatisfied with the level of math education.

Calculating does not equal mathematics. It's a subsection of it. In years gone by it was the limiting factor, but computers now allow you to make the whole of mathematics more intellectual.

Maths is fundamentally a different process in education than it is in the real world. There is an insistence that we do maths by hand when most of it is done by computers. The idea that you have to do everything by hand before you can operate a computer is nonsense.

Answers are what we are trying to get at; search is a process by which you may be able to get answers, but it's not the end goal. It's a mechanism.

Any tool can be used badly.