The Latest on Everything: If I was really really really smart, like Stephen Wolfram, the guy in this article, I might be able to understand whether this is something significant or not. He claims to have discovered a sort of theory of everything, a concept that is going to completely overhaul our understanding of existence. That's nice, but so does every street person and conspiracy theorist I have ever met. Difference is that Wolfram is a certified super-genius - Ph.D. in Physics while in his teens, creator of incomprehensible software, Mathematica, that solves the sort of horrendous equations that caused me not pursue an engineering degree. (That, and it interfered with my video game habits.)

I suppose when this work is released in full, there will all sorts of real-smart and poseur-smart people who will weigh in on it. Perhaps they'll have some sort of conference for people with smart credentials - you know, folks with a strange fashion sense, odd behavioral ticks, and lots of letters after their names. My guess is that won't make it much clearer to mere mortals.

And when all is said on done, they still won't understand their tax returns.