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Stephen Wolfram

What Stephen Wolfram thinks about simplicity

@stephen-wolfram · 23 positions · On ppll ↗

Founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, creator of Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha, and author of A New Kind of Science.

Stephen Wolfram did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

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Only Stephen Wolfram on simplicity. See everyone on simplicity

3 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Stephen Wolfram has said — not written or endorsed by them.

3 positions so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

  1. Our readingA program's simplicity of structure does not limit how sophisticated the computation it performs can be.

    Their wordseven programs (or fragments of them) that are very simple in their structure can end up doing computation that is in a sense as sophisticated as anything.

    ↗Towards a Theory of Bugs: The Ruliology of the Unexpectedwritings.stephenwolfram.com 1st of 3 in this piece

  2. 6 months earlier

  3. Our readingEven very simple, easily enumerated computer programs commonly produce extremely rich and complex behavior.

    Their wordsBut what I discovered in the early 1980s is that this is absolutely not the case-and that in fact it's very common for programs even small enough to be easily enumerated to show extremely rich and complex behavior.

    ↗P vs. NP and the Difficulty of Computation: A Ruliological Approachwritings.stephenwolfram.com

  4. 3 weeks earlier

  5. Our readingThe behavior of the simplest computational rules is permanently foundational, not merely significant for the present.

    Their wordsIf one's dealing with the simplest rules of some type, they're going to be foundational not only now, but forever.

    ↗What Is Ruliology?writings.stephenwolfram.com 2nd of 3 in this piece