Radical physicist flatters computer fans

Physicist Stephen Wolfram took the stage Wednesday at the Comdex Fall 2002 trade show, evangelising a computing-centric view of the universe that might sit better with the technology industry than it has with some other audiences. Wolfram believes the universe is composed not of particles and waves, but of simple tiny programs. He believes these myriad programs, or algorithms, give rise to physical phenomena as fundamental as space and as complicated as human beings