bret victor
researcher on the the future of computing, spatial computing, extended cognition and more. founder of dynamicland.
his main thesis reflects a frustration i held for a long time, but wasn't able to articulate: we invented the dynamic medium (you could interpret it as "computing", but see the references below for way more detail) and we still don't use it to 10% of its potential.
references:
core videos:
in it, he presents very simply and clearly his theory of change:
Premise:
New representations of thought — written language, numerals, mathematical notation, data graphics — have been responsible for some of the most significant leaps in the progress of civilization, by expanding humanity’s collectively-thinkable territory.Opportunity:
The dynamic medium now exists. But dynamic representations of thought do not. Humanity is using the dynamic medium merely to emulate and extend static representations from the era of paper.Intention:
Use the dynamic medium to reinvent the representations of thought. Invent a way of thinking — imagining, understanding, creating, explaining — via dynamic representations that engage all modes of thought and respect the whole human being.
+ more details, illustrations and his plan for application on dynamicland. it's very similar to the vision i was prototyping with the 24h system at high stakes academy back in 2019, minus the life management aspect of it.
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stop drawing dead fish - exploring/introducing a few "unique affordances of the computational medium"
must-reads:
1) explorable explanations
introduces: reactive documents (as seen in ten brighter ideas), explorable examples, contextual information.
2) what can a technologist do about climate change?
*its application goes way beyond the topic of climate change. i recommend reading it not only considering it, but the complex, entangled situation of our civilizational systems as whole - challenges, risks, shortcomings, biases, etc... it's a great starting point for exploring different large-scale action pathways.
it presents a few of the kinds of technical transformations/innovations/initiatives that are deeply needed and are not being talked about enough.
the whole 1) Media for Understanding Situations and 2) The world is not what you see parts.
they're both short, i recommend you read the full article, but you can skip to these to get why they're so important.
on 1:
he introduces important concepts i'll return to often when discussing coordination systems, collaboration, sensemaking: model-driven debate, model-driven reading, model-driven authoring.
these can be seen/experienced in his own ten brighter ideas, the society library's debate maps, and more.
on 2:
he shares a simple yet powerful framing of how we cannot afford as a society to continue with our businesses/governments/economies "as usual". there is and there can be no such thing as not being "mission-driven" (despite how coachy or wishy-washy that might sound). we're always optimizing for some things at the expanse of others, often unconsciously. we need to take this seriously and end the reign of nihilistic design. i urge you to read this and the article i just linked, deepening the analysis.
3) seeing spaces
especially important considering his shift from focusing on our standard 2d interfaces of modern computing to other forms of spatial intelligence and spatial computing.
4) learnable programming
a new perspective on what programming should actually be/feel/look like. simply stated - humane, interpretable, intuitive. a practical vision (with examples/prototypes) that deeply resonates.
other stuff
bret's bookshelf (2015):
https://joodaloop.com/bret-bookshelf/
to check out:
YouTube - Bootstrapping Research & Dynamicland, Dec 2019