That's because we are encumbered in this world to have limited computational capabilities. We need abstractions and generalizations to navigate the complexities of this world. But along the way in developing a way to simplify the complex world, we discovered recurring patterns that have infinite reach. The models that we have discovered also allowed us to reason about many more different systems and to create universal computational machines. Obscured from our intuitive understanding of this world is that fundamental reality that everything is of computational origin.

Much to the chagrin of summer party planners, weather is a notoriously chaotic system. Small changes in precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind speed or direction, etc. can balloon into an entirely new set of conditions within a few days. That's why weather forecasts become unreliable more than about seven days into the future -- and why picnics need backup plans. But what if we could understand a chaotic system well enough to predict how it would behave far into the future? In January this year, scientists did just that.

Much to the chagrin of summer party planners, weather is a notoriously chaotic system. Small changes in precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind speed or direction, etc. can balloon into an entirely new set of conditions within a few days. That's why weather forecasts become unreliable more than about seven days into the future--and why picnics need backup plans. But what if we could understand a chaotic system well enough to predict how it would behave far into the future? In January this year, scientists did just that.

Much to the chagrin of summer party planners, weather is a notoriously chaotic system. Small changes in precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind speed or direction, etc. can balloon into an entirely new set of conditions within a few days. That's why weather forecasts become unreliable more than about seven days into the future -- and why picnics need backup plans. But what if we could understand a chaotic system well enough to predict how it would behave far into the future? In January this year, scientists did just that.

On August 21, 2017, there's going to be a total eclipse of the Sun visible on a line across the US. But when exactly will the solar eclipse occur at a given location? Being able to predict astronomical events has historically been one of the great triumphs of exact science. But in 2017, how well can it actually be done? Stephen Wolfram is a computer scientist, physicist, and businessman. Sign up to get Backchannel's weekly newsletter. The answer, I think, is well enough that even though the edge of totality moves at just over 1000 miles per hour it should be possible to predict when it will arrive at a given location to within perhaps a second. And as a demonstration of this, we've created a website to let anyone enter their geo location (or address) and then immediately compute when the eclipse will reach them--as well as generate many pages of other information. These days it's easy to find out when the next solar eclipse will be; indeed built right into the Wolfram Language there's ...