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STEPHEN WOLFRAM

Stephen Wolfram has been responsible for three revolutionary developments: the Mathematica computation system, A New Kind of Science, and the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine.

Wolfram was educated at Eton, Oxford and Caltech, receiving his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the age of 20. Wolfram's work on basic science led him to a series of fundamental discoveries about the computational universe of possible programs. Summarized in his best-selling 2002 book A New Kind of Science, these discoveries have not only launched major new directions in basic research, but have also led to breakthroughs in scientific modeling in physical, biological and social domains—as well as defining a broad new basis for technology discovery.

Launched in 1988, Mathematica has revolutionized the way technical computation is done, and has been responsible for countless advances over the past two decades. Starting from a set of fundamental principles devised by Wolfram, Mathematica has continually grown, integrating more and more algorithmic domains, and spawning such technologies as the Computable Document Format (CDF).

Building on Mathematica and A New Kind of Science, Wolfram in 2009 launched Wolfram|Alpha—an ambitious, long-term project to make as much of the world's knowledge as possible computable, and accessible to everyone. Used every day on the web and through apps by millions of people around the world, Wolfram|Alpha defines a fundamentally new kind of computing platform that is turning science-fiction computer intelligence into reality.

In addition to his scientific and technical achievements, Wolfram has been the CEO of Wolfram Research since its founding in 1987. Under Wolfram's leadership, Wolfram Research has become one of the world's most respected software companies, as well as a powerhouse of technical and intellectual innovation, and a major contributor to education and research around the world.

WILL WRIGHT

William Ralph "Will" Wright (born January 20, 1960, in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American video game designer and co-founder of the game development company Maxis, now part of Electronic Arts. In April 2009, he left Electronic Arts to run "Stupid Fun Club", an entertainment think tank in which Wright and EA are principal shareholders.

The first computer game Wright designed was Raid on Bungeling Bay in 1984, but it was SimCity that brought him to prominence. The game was released by Maxis, a company Wright formed with Jeff Braun, and he built upon the game's theme of computer simulation with numerous other titles including SimEarth and SimAnt.

Wright's greatest success to date came as the original designer for The Sims games series. The game spawned multiple sequels and expansions and Wright earned many awards for his work. His latest work, Spore, was released in September 2008 and features gameplay based upon the model of evolution and scientific advancement. The game sold 406,000 copies within three weeks of its release.

He was born as William Ralph Wright on January 20, 1960, in Atlanta. He is of French, English, Italian, and Native American descent.

After graduating at 16 from Episcopal High School, he enrolled in Louisiana State University, transferring two years later to Louisiana Tech. Beginning with a start at an architecture degree, followed by mechanical engineering, he fell into computers and robotics. He excelled in subjects he was interested in—architecture, economics, mechanical engineering, and military history—but was held back by his impractical goals such as language arts. His earlier dream of space colonization remained, and was joined by a love for robotics. After another two years at Louisiana Tech, in the fall of 1980, Wright moved on to The New School in Manhattan. He lived in an apartment over Balducci's, in Greenwich Village, and spent his spare time searching for spare parts in local electronics surplus stores. After one year at the New School, Wright returned to Baton Rouge without his degree, concluding five years of collegiate study.

During a summer break from college, he met his first wife Joell Jones, an artist currently living in California, on vacation to her hometown of Baton Rouge. In an interview published in February 2003, Will claims that games were absorbing so much of his time, he decided that perhaps making games was the way to go. Wright's first game was the helicopter action game Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984) for the Commodore 64.

Wright found that he had more fun creating levels with his level editor for Raid on Bungeling Bay than he had while actually playing the game. He created a new game that would later evolve into SimCity, but he had trouble finding a publisher. The structuralist dynamics of the game were in part inspired by the work of two architectural and urban theorists, Christopher Alexander and Jay Forrester.

"I'm interested in the process and strategies for design. The architect Christopher Alexander, in his book A Pattern Language formalized a lot of spatial relationships into a grammar for design. I'd really like to work toward a grammar for complex systems and present someone with tools for designing complex things."

Wright, in an interview with The Times, expressed belief that computers extend the imagination, and posits the emergence of the "metabrain", stating:

"Any human institutional system that draws on the intelligence of all its members is a metabrain. Up to now, we have had high friction between the neurons of the metabrain; technology is lowering that friction tremendously. Computers are allowing us to aggregate our intelligence in ways that were never possible before. If you look at Spore, people are making this stuff, and computers collect it, then decide who to send it to. The computer is the broker. What they are really exploring is the collective creativity of millions of people. They are aggregating human intelligence into a system that is more powerful than we thought artificial intelligence was going to be."

In 1986, he met Jeff Braun, an investor interested in entering the computer game industry, at what Wright calls "the world's most important pizza party." Together they formed Maxis the next year in Orinda, California. SimCity (1989) was a hit and has been credited as one of the most influential computer games ever made. Wright himself has been widely featured in several computer magazines—particularly PC Gamer, which has listed Wright in its annual 'Game Gods' feature, alongside such notables as Roberta Williams and Peter Molyneux.

Following the success of SimCity, Wright designed SimEarth (1990) and SimAnt (1991). He co-designed SimCity 2000 (1993) with Fred Haslam and in the meantime Maxis produced other "Sim" games. Wright's next game was SimCopter (1996). Although none of these games were as successful as SimCity, they further cemented Wright's reputation as a designer of "software toys"—games that cannot be won or lost. In 1992, Wright and his family moved to Orinda, California.

Wright has a great interest in complex adaptive systems and most of his games have been based around them or books that describe them (SimAnt: E.O. Wilson's The Ants, SimEarth: James Lovelock's Gaia Theory, SimCity: Jay Forrester's Urban Dynamics and World Dynamics, Spore: Drake's Equation and The Powers of Ten) Wright's role in the development of the concepts from simulations to games is to empower the players by creating what he dubs "possibility spaces", or simple rules and game elements that add up to a very complex design. All Maxis, and later games that Wright had a hand in designing, adhere to these design principles.

Maxis went public in 1995 with revenue of US$38 million. The stock reached $50 a share and then dropped as Maxis posted a loss. Electronic Arts bought Maxis in June 1997. Wright had been thinking about making a virtual doll house ever since the early 1990s, similar to SimCity but focused on individual people. Originally conceived of as an architectural design game called Home Tactics, Wright's idea changed when someone suggested the player should be rated on the quality of life experience by the homeowners. It was a difficult idea to sell to E.A., because already 40% of Maxis's employees had been laid off.

When Wright took his idea to the Maxis board of directors, Jeff Braun says, "The board looked at The Sims and said, 'What is this? He wants to do an interactive doll house? The guy is out of his mind.' " Doll houses were for girls, and girls didn't play video games. Maxis gave little support or financing for the game. Electronic Arts, which bought Maxis in 1997, was more enthusiastic. Wright's games are so different from E.A.'s other releases that it was hard to imagine the two being united in the same enterprise. But the success of SimCity had already established Sim as a strong brand, and E.A., which by then, fifteen years after its founding, was becoming a Procter & Gamble-style brand-management company, foresaw the possibility of building a Sim franchise.

E.A. published The Sims in February 2000 and it became Wright's biggest success yet. It eventually surpassed Myst as the best-selling computer game of all time and spawned numerous expansion packs and other games. He designed a massively multiplayer version of the game called The Sims Online, which was not as popular as the original. By November 2006, The Sims franchise had earned E.A. more than a billion dollars.

In a presentation at the Game Developers Conference on March 11, 2005, he announced his latest game Spore. He used the current work on this game to demonstrate methods that can be used to reduce the amount of content that needs to be created by the game developers. Wright hopes to inspire others to take risks in game creation.

As for his theories on interactive design, Wright says the following:

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