According to my dictionary, a friend is variously defined as:A person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.Someone with whom you share mutual knowledge, esteem, affection, and respect, along with a degree of rendering service to in times of need or crisis.Desiring what is best for the other person.Being able to express sympathy and empathy and being honest with each other.It's funny, but I couldn't find a definition that espoused anything about "face-to-face" connections being a requirement for friendship. I don't see anything in the definitions that precludes having an electronic friendship. In fact, I don't see anything that stipulates that you have to have met the person live in the real world rather than knowing them in the virtual world.
Diego Morelli on 17 Mar 09The latest project by Stephen Wolfram is defined as the first "computational knowledge engine", something capable of answering factual question for you. The Wolfram engine is described as "a proprietary system based on fields of knowledge, containing terabytes of curated data and millions of lines of algorithms to represent real-world knowledge as we know it".
