Wired: The home page is nearly blank. At the center, just below a colorful logo, you'll find an empty data field. Type in a phrase, hit Return, and knowledge appears.
No, it's not Google. It's Wolfram|Alpha, named after its creator, Stephen Wolfram, a 49-year-old former particle physics prodigy who became bewitched by the potential of computers. He invented a powerful computational software program (Mathematica), built a company around it (Wolfram Research), and wrote a massive book (A New Kind of Science) that claims to redefine the universe itself in terms of computation.
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