Jason Brennan is a Canadian computer scientist focused on education and computing. He’s worked at Hopscotch and Khan Academy. We discussed his experiences building multiple programming language platforms, the incomprehensibly large vision of Alan Kay, and his new project Beach.

http://futureofcoding.org/episodes/20

Jason Brennan is a Canadian computer scientist focused on education and computing. He&rsquo;s worked at Hopscotch and Khan Academy. We discussed his experiences building multiple programming language platforms, the incomprehensibly large vision of Alan Kay, and his new project Beach.
<a href="http://futureofcoding.org/episodes/20">http://futureofcoding.org/episodes/20</a>

Playful explorations of the rich past and exciting future that we're all building with our silly little computers. Hosted by Jimmy Miller and Ivan Reese.

Playful explorations of the rich past and exciting future that we're all building with our silly little computers. Hosted by Jimmy Miller and Ivan Reese.

Future of Coding

An imaginative, ruminative romp through the land of poisoned sand. What even are computers, where did they come from, and how might we make them radically different. Hosted by Ivan Reese, Jimmy Miller, and Lu Wilson.

An imaginative, ruminative romp through the land of poisoned sand. What even are computers, where did they come from, and how might we make them radically different. Hosted by Ivan Reese, Jimmy Miller, and Lu Wilson.

Coding On (the) Beach: Jason Brennan

If you're anything like Ivan (oof, sorry), you've heard of Pygmalion but never caught more than the gist. Some sort of project from the early 70s, similar to Sketchpad or Smalltalk or something, yet another promising prototype from the early history of our field that failed to take the world by storm. Our stock-in-trade on this show.

But you've probably heard of Programming by Demonstration. And you've certainly heard of icons — you know, those little pictures that have become indelibly part of computing as we know it. Pygmalion is the originator of these concepts… and more!

The best introduction to Pygmalion is Mariano Guerra's No-code History: Pygmalion, which includes a clearly articulated summary of the big ideas, motivation, and design, with a video demonstration of the programming interface, key terminology, and links.

The most introduction to Pygmalion — or Pig Million, The Millionth Pig, as it'll surely come to be known — is the subject of today's episode: the original paper by David Canfield Smith.

Links

$ We don't run ads on this show anymore. Sometimes Ivan makes a fake ad for a nonsense product like CarrotGrid or Hest, but those don't pay for the dirt & vapor we grow them in. But what if they could?


Gonna just get this one out of the way: Quotation — and I quote, "A crucial semantic distinction between direct and indirect speech is that direct speech purports to report the exact words that were said or written EXACTLY AS THEY WERE SAID OR WRITTEN, LU, whereas indirect speech is a representation of speech in one's own words WHICH IS ALSO TOTALLY FINE, BUT JUST BE COOL ABOUT IT HEY?"


@TodePond@mas.to: but wouldn't it be funny... if i quoted those statements on a podcast... and the podcast editor thought... "that doesn't sound right, bret can't have said that"... (he can do no wrong after all)... and so they thought i was just paraphrasing him wrong... and they didn't mark them as quotes like all the other quotes in the show... wouldn't that be funny


DrawDeadFish.com


Shout out to Brian Hempel who sent us (among other treats) this concise summary of Pig Million from the seminal book Watch What I Do: Programming by Demonstration.


Recent FoC Patreon bonus episodes were about the game Baba is You and, on our first ever video episode, the design of a visual representation for machine code.


Leda and the Swan.


Lenna, a sexist test image that was and to some extent still is widely used in computer graphics.


Living Computation


Lu: Biscuit


Jimmy: Biscuit


Ivan: Limp Bizkit


Fine, I might as well link to Frege and analogy.


Aaron Sloman's INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The Role of Intuition and Non-Logical Reasoning in Intelligence


Ivan: Platonism


Jimmy: Neoplatonism


Lu: Neuplatonism


I would never Derrida


Nosey words


History of the alphabet


TodeTode


Lu: Conlang


Ivan: Conlon Nancarrow, beloved (by Ivan, at least) composer of music for the Player Piano. Here's a baby-faced Adam Neely with the scoop if you're new to Nancarrow. Welcome.


Jimmy: Conway Twitty


Autological words


Heterological words


School for Poetic Computation


Programming by Demonstration


Player vs Environment


For the video demonstrating the programming model, check Mariano's post


Open Canvas Working Group


Lu's project CellPond, and their SPLASH talk


StageCast Creator


Marcel Goethals makes a lot of cool weird stuff and is a choice follow.

Why does it say "Put all the metal back in the ground" at the bottom of the show notes?

Music featured in this episode:
Various old stuff by Ivan. The music for StageCast Creator is called Between Two Tigers.
Conlon Nancarrow's Study No. 47
Wagner, the new Witness haunting every episode.

! Send us email, share your ideas in the Slack, and catch us at these normal places:
Ivan: Mastodon • Website
Jimmy: Mastodon • Website
Lu: Mastodon • Website

See you in the future!

https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/072

If you're anything like Ivan (oof, sorry), you've heard of <a href="https://worrydream.com/refs/Smith_DC_1975_-_Pygmalion.pdf">Pygmalion</a> but never caught more than the gist. Some sort of project from the early 70s, similar to Sketchpad or Smalltalk or something, yet another promising prototype from the early history of our field that failed to take the world by storm. Our stock-in-trade on this show.
But you've probably heard of Programming by Demonstration. And you've certainly heard of icons — you know, those little pictures that have become indelibly part of computing as we know it. Pygmalion is the originator of these concepts… and more!
The best introduction to Pygmalion is Mariano Guerra's <a href="https://instadeq.com/blog/posts/no-code-history-pygmalion-1975/">No-code History: Pygmalion</a>, which includes a clearly articulated summary of the big ideas, motivation, and design, with a video demonstration of the programming interface, key terminology, and links.
The most introduction to Pygmalion — or Pig Million, The Millionth Pig, as it'll surely come to be known — is the subject of today's episode: the original paper by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Canfield_Smith">David Canfield Smith</a>.
Links
$ We don't run ads on this show anymore. Sometimes Ivan makes a fake ad for a nonsense product like CarrotGrid or Hest, but those don't pay for the dirt &amp; vapor we grow them in. <a href="https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding">But what if they could?</a>
<ul>
<li>
Gonna just get this one out of the way: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation">Quotation</a> — and I quote, "A crucial semantic distinction between direct and indirect speech is that direct speech purports to report the exact words that were said or written EXACTLY AS THEY WERE SAID OR WRITTEN, LU, whereas indirect speech is a representation of speech in one's own words WHICH IS ALSO TOTALLY FINE, BUT JUST BE COOL ABOUT IT HEY?"
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://mas.to/@TodePond/112319116050265379">@TodePond@mas.to: but wouldn't it be funny... if i quoted those statements on a podcast... and the podcast editor thought... "that doesn't sound right, bret can't have said that"... (he can do no wrong after all)... and so they thought i was just paraphrasing him wrong... and they didn't mark them as quotes like all the other quotes in the show... wouldn't that be funny</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="file:///Applications/iA%20Writer.app/Contents/Resources/Templates/Sans.iatemplate/Contents/Resources/drawdeadfish.com">DrawDeadFish.com</a>
</li>
<li>
Shout out to <a href="http://brianhempel.com/">Brian Hempel</a> who sent us (among other <a href="https://maniposynth.org/">treats</a>) this <a href="http://acypher.com/wwid/Chapters/01Pygmalion.html">concise summary of Pig Million</a> from the seminal book <a href="http://acypher.com/wwid/">Watch What I Do: Programming by Demonstration</a>.
</li>
<li>
Recent FoC Patreon bonus episodes were about the game <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/baba-is-you-104986179">Baba is You</a> and, on our first ever video episode, the design of a <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/32-checkboxes-103278355">visual representation for machine code</a>.
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda_and_the_Swan">Leda and the Swan</a>.
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna">Lenna</a>, a sexist test image that was and to some extent still is widely used in computer graphics.
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.livingcomputation.org/">Living Computation</a>
</li>
<li>
Lu: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscuit">Biscuit</a>
</li>
<li>
Jimmy: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscuit_(bread)">Biscuit</a>
</li>
<li>
Ivan: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limp_Bizkit">Limp Bizkit</a>
</li>
<li>
Fine, I might as well link to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottlob_Frege">Frege</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy">analogy</a>.
</li>
<li>
Aaron Sloman's <a href="https://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/sloman-analogical-1971.pdf">INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The Role of Intuition and Non-Logical Reasoning in Intelligence</a>
</li>
<li>
Ivan: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonism">Platonism</a>
</li>
<li>
Jimmy: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism">Neoplatonism</a>
</li>
<li>
Lu: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ">Neuplatonism</a>
</li>
<li>
I would never <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Derrida">Derrida</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/03/a-nosy-question.html">Nosey words</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_alphabet">History of the alphabet</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://github.com/TodePond/TodeTode">TodeTode</a>
</li>
<li>
Lu: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language">Conlang</a>
</li>
<li>
Ivan: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conlon_Nancarrow">Conlon Nancarrow</a>, beloved (by Ivan, at least) composer of music for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_piano">Player Piano</a>. Here's a baby-faced Adam Neely with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2reuQyLoZM">the scoop</a> if you're new to Nancarrow. Welcome.
</li>
<li>
Jimmy: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway_Twitty">Conway Twitty</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autological_word">Autological words</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grelling%E2%80%93Nelson_paradox">Heterological words</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_for_Poetic_Computation">School for Poetic Computation</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_by_demonstration">Programming by Demonstration</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_versus_environment">Player vs Environment</a>
</li>
<li>
For the video demonstrating the programming model, check <a href="https://instadeq.com/blog/posts/no-code-history-pygmalion-1975/">Mariano's post</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.canvasprotocol.org/">Open Canvas Working Group</a>
</li>
<li>
Lu's project <a href="https://cellpond.cool/">CellPond</a>, and their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQgxFuw8f1U">SPLASH talk</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagecast_Creator">StageCast Creator</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://mastodon.social/@wolkenmachine">Marcel Goethals</a> makes a lot of cool weird stuff and is a choice follow.
</li>
</ul>
Why does it say "Put all the metal back in the ground" at the bottom of the show notes?
Music featured in this episode:
<ul>
<li>Various old stuff by Ivan. The music for StageCast Creator is called <a href="https://ivanish.ca/lost/">Between Two Tigers</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?UerzkjrLju8?t=280">Conlon Nancarrow's Study No. 47</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE1NyYT31Tw">Wagner</a>, the new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(2016_video_game)">Witness</a> haunting every episode.</li>
</ul>
! Send us <a href="mailto:admin@futureofcoding.org?subject=Email%20from%20a%20listener">email</a>, share your ideas in the <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/community">Slack</a>, and catch us at these normal places:
<ul>
<li>Ivan: <a href="https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://ivanish.ca/">Website</a></li>
<li>Jimmy: <a href="https://hachyderm.io/@jimmyhmiller">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/">Website</a></li>
<li>Lu: <a href="https://mas.to/@TodePond">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://www.todepond.com/">Website</a></li>
</ul>
See you in the future!
<a href="https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/072">https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/072</a>

Pygmalion by David C. Smith

Inventing on Principle
Stop Drawing Dead Fish
The Future of Programming

Yes, all three of them in one episode. Phew!

Links

$ patreon.com/futureofcoding — Lu and Jimmy recorded an episode about Hest without telling me, and by total coincidence released it on my birthday. Those jerks… make me so happy.
Lu's talk at SPLASH 2023: Cellpond: Spatial Programming Without Escape
Gary Bernhardt's talk Wat
Inventing on Principle by Bret Victor ("""Clean""" Audio)
Braid, the good video game from the creator of The Witness
David Hellman is the visual artist behind Braid, A Lesson Is Learned but the Damage Is Irreversible, Dynamicland, and… the Braid section of Inventing on Principle.
Light Table by Chris Granger
Learnable Programming by Bret Victor
When Lu says "It's The Line", they're referring to this thing they're working on called Seet (or "see it"), and you can sneak a peek at seet right heet.
Paris Fashion Week absolutely struts, and so can you!
The Canadian Tuxedo. As the representative of Canada, I can confirm that I own both a denim jacket and denim pants. If you see me at a conference wearing this combo, I will give you a hug.
Jimmy runs a personal Lichess data lake.
Hot Module Replacement is a good thing.
Pygmalion has a lot of juicy silly bits, 'parently.
Cuttle is awesome! It's a worthy successor to Apparatus. Toby Schachman, Forrest Oliphant, I think maybe a few other folks too? Crushing it. Oh, and don't miss Toby's episode of this very podcast!
Recursive Drawing, another Toby Schachman joint.
Screens in Screens in Screens, another Lu Wilson joint.
Larry Tesler. Not a fan of modes.
Lu writes about No Ideas on their blog, which is actually just a wiki, but it's actually a blog, but it's actually just a garden.
When we mention Rich Hickey, we're referring to the talk Simple Made Easy
Jacob Collier, ugh.
Suffragettes, women advocating for their right to vote, absolutely had a principle. Not sure that we should be directly likening their struggle to what we do in tech. On the other hand, it's good to foster positive movements, to resist incel and other hateful ones.
Instead of linking to e/ anything, I'm just gonna link to BLTC for reasons that only make sense to longtime listeners.
Stop Writing Dead Programs by Jack Rusher. Jack Rusher? Jack Rusher!
It's the fish one, the one with the fish. …Sorry, these aren't actually fish, or something, because they're just drawings.
René Magritte is the creator behind La Trahison des Images, origin of "Ceci n'est pas une pipe". Or maybe it was Margit the Fell Omen?
Magritte's Words and Images are lovely. Here's an English translation, though its worth taking a look at the original in context.
Acousmatic Music
Lu has made art with behaviour — various sands, and CellPond, say.
Barnaby Dixon? Barnaby Dixon. Barnaby Dixon! Barnaby Dixon!!
You can listen to part of Ivan's """Metronome""", if you want. Or you can listen to an early version of the song he's using this metronome to write. Or you can hear snippets of it in the Torn Leaf Zero video (especially the ending). But, like, you could also go make yourself lunch. I recommend mixing up a spicy peanut sauce for your roasted carrots. Shred a bit of cheese, tomato. Toast the bread. Pull the sausages right when the oil starts to spit. Put them straight into the compost. Look at the bottom of the compost bucket. What's down there? It's shiny. Why are you reading this? Why am I writing this? Why do we make thispodcast?
Wintergatan — Marble Machine exists
Oh, I forgot to add a link to Arroost earlier. You can also watch a pretty good video that is basically an Arroost tutorial, not much to it. There are also some nice examples of things people have made with Arroost.
The Rain Room looks pretty cool. It's the exact inverse of how rain works in many video games. YOU MUST PLAY RAIN WORLD.
Here's a beautiful demo of a microtonal guitar, and speaking of using complex machines to make music that would be "easier" to make with a computer, here's a microtonal guitar with mechanized frets that can change the tuning dynamically. This entire YT channel is gold.
Shane Crowley wrote a lovely blog post about creating music with Arroost.
blank.page is a fun experiment in writing with various frictions.
Super Meat Boy (the successor to Meat Boy, a Flash game) and Celeste are great examples of communicating tacit knowledge through the design of a simulation.
Newgrounds and eBaum's World and Homestar Runner were early examples of (arguably) computer-native media.
Hey, here's this episode's requisite link to the T2 Tile Project and Robust-First Computing. I should probably just create a hard-coded section of the episode page template linking to T2, The Witness, and Jack Rusher.
The pun-proof Ivan Sutherland made Sketchpad. Planner exists.
The PlayStation 3 Cell processor was this weirdly parallel CPU that was a pain in the butt to program.
The SpaceMouse

Put all metal back into the ground.

Music featured in this episode:
Fingers from This Score is Butt Ugly
The Sailor's Chorus from Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.

! Send us email, share your ideas in the Slack, and catch us at these normal places:
Ivan: Mastodon • Website
Jimmy: Mastodon • Website
Lu: Mastodon • Website

See you in the future!

https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/71

<a href="https://vimeo.com/906418692">Inventing on Principle</a> <a href="https://vimeo.com/64895205">Stop Drawing Dead Fish</a> <a href="https://vimeo.com/71278954">The Future of Programming</a>
Yes, all three of them in one episode. Phew!
Links
$ <a href="https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding">patreon.com/futureofcoding</a> — Lu and Jimmy recorded an episode about Hest without telling me, and by total coincidence released it on my birthday. Those jerks… make me so happy.
<ul>
<li>Lu's talk at SPLASH 2023: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQgxFuw8f1U">Cellpond: Spatial Programming Without Escape</a></li>
<li>Gary Bernhardt's talk <a href="https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat">Wat</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGYGl_xxfXA">Inventing on Principle by Bret Victor ("""Clean""" Audio)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braid_(video_game)">Braid</a>, the good video game from the creator of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZokQov_aH0">The Witness</a></li>
<li><a href="file:///Applications/iA%20Writer.app/Contents/Resources/Templates/Sans.iatemplate/Contents/Resources/davidhellman.net">David Hellman</a> is the visual artist behind <a href="http://braid-game.com/">Braid</a>, <a href="http://www.alessonislearned.com/">A Lesson Is Learned but the Damage Is Irreversible</a>, <a href="https://dynamicland.org/">Dynamicland</a>, and… the Braid section of Inventing on Principle.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ibdknox/light-table">Light Table</a> by <a href="https://chris-granger.com/resume/">Chris Granger</a></li>
<li><a href="https://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/">Learnable Programming</a> by Bret Victor</li>
<li>When Lu says "It's The Line", they're referring to this thing they're working on called Seet (or "see it"), and you can <a href="https://github.com/TodePond/TodePondDotCom/blob/main/lab/readme.md">sneak</a> a peek at seet right <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/see-it/prior-art/">heet</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Fashion_Week">Paris Fashion Week</a> absolutely struts, and so can you!</li>
<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_jacket#Canadian_tuxedo">Canadian Tuxedo</a>. As the representative of Canada, I can confirm that I own both a denim jacket and denim pants. If you see me at a conference wearing this combo, I will give you a hug.</li>
<li>Jimmy runs a personal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichess">Lichess</a> data lake.</li>
<li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24581873/what-exactly-is-hot-module-replacement-in-webpack">Hot Module Replacement</a> is a good thing.</li>
<li><a href="https://instadeq.com/blog/posts/no-code-history-pygmalion-1975/">Pygmalion</a> has a lot of juicy silly bits, 'parently.</li>
<li><a href="http://cuttle.xyz/">Cuttle</a> is awesome! It's a worthy successor to <a href="http://aprt.us/">Apparatus</a>. <a href="http://tobyschachman.com/">Toby Schachman</a>, <a href="https://www.forresto.com/">Forrest Oliphant</a>, I think maybe a few other folks too? Crushing it. Oh, and don't miss <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/051">Toby's episode</a> of this very podcast!</li>
<li><a href="http://recursivedrawing.com/">Recursive Drawing</a>, another Toby Schachman joint.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4OIcwt8vcE">Screens in Screens in Screens</a>, another Lu Wilson joint.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Tesler">Larry Tesler</a>. Not a fan of modes.</li>
<li>Lu writes about <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/my-wikiblogarden/no-more-ideas/">No Ideas</a> on their <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/">blog</a>, which is actually just a <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/">wiki</a>, but it's actually a <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/">blog</a>, but it's actually just a <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/">garden</a>.</li>
<li>When we mention <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Hickey">Rich Hickey</a>, we're referring to the talk <a href="https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy/">Simple Made Easy</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Collier">Jacob Collier</a>, ugh.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette">Suffragettes</a>, women advocating for their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage">right to vote</a>, absolutely had a principle. Not sure that we should be directly likening their struggle to what we do in tech. On the other hand, it's good to foster positive movements, to resist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incel">incel</a> and other hateful ones.</li>
<li>Instead of linking to e/ anything, I'm just gonna link to <a href="https://www.bltc.com/">BLTC</a> for reasons that only make sense to longtime listeners.</li>
<li><a href="https://jackrusher.com/strange-loop-2022/">Stop Writing Dead Programs</a> by <a href="https://jackrusher.com/">Jack Rusher</a>. <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/041">Jack Rusher</a>? <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/069">Jack Rusher</a>!</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMklf0vUl18">It's the fish one, the one with the fish. …Sorry, these aren't actually fish, or something, because they're just drawings.</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte">René Magritte</a> is the creator behind <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images">La Trahison des Images</a>, origin of "Ceci n'est pas une pipe". Or maybe it was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9MQe7tR5xQ">Margit the Fell Omen</a>?</li>
<li>Magritte's <a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58451673/f38.item.r=les">Words and Images</a> are lovely. Here's an <a href="http://www.philosophical-investigations.org/2017/12/representing-reality-magritte-on-words.html">English translation</a>, though its worth taking a look at the original in context.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acousmatic_music">Acousmatic Music</a></li>
<li>Lu has made art with behaviour — various <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDyvjkAs5-Y">sands</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU">CellPond</a>, say.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/barnabydixon">Barnaby Dixon? Barnaby Dixon. Barnaby Dixon! Barnaby Dixon!!</a></li>
<li>You can listen to part of Ivan's <a href="https://raised-sixth.surge.sh/">"""Metronome"""</a>, if you want. Or you can listen to an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoP1bg1GQTM">early version</a> of the song he's using this metronome to write. Or you can hear snippets of it in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FgAHiI3ZNY">Torn Leaf Zero video</a> (especially the ending). But, like, you could also go make yourself lunch. I recommend mixing up a spicy peanut sauce for your roasted carrots. Shred a bit of cheese, tomato. Toast the bread. Pull the sausages right when the oil starts to spit. Put them straight into the compost. Look at the bottom of the compost bucket. What's down there? It's shiny. Why are you reading this? Why am I writing this? Why do we make thispodcast?</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q">Wintergatan — Marble Machine</a> exists</li>
<li>Oh, I forgot to add a link to <a href="https://arroost.com/">Arroost</a> earlier. You can also watch a pretty good video that is basically an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNBKdU6XrLY">Arroost tutorial</a>, not much to it. There are also some nice examples of <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/arroost/examples/">things people have made with Arroost</a>.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_Room">Rain Room</a> looks <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkvazIZx-F0">pretty cool</a>. It's the exact inverse of <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23890979/starfield-rain-effects-how-its-made">how rain works in many video games</a>. YOU MUST PLAY <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0L-JzJhZbM">RAIN WORLD</a>.</li>
<li>Here's a <a href="https://youtu.be/iRsSjh5TTqI?feature=shared&amp;t=188">beautiful demo of a microtonal guitar</a>, and speaking of using complex machines to make music that would be "easier" to make with a computer, here's a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbbyikFthEc">microtonal guitar with mechanized frets that can change the tuning dynamically</a>. This entire YT channel is gold.</li>
<li>Shane Crowley wrote <a href="https://edibotopic.com/blog/doing/leisure-sick/">a lovely blog post</a> about creating music with Arroost.</li>
<li><a href="https://blank.page/">blank.page</a> is a fun experiment in writing with various frictions.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Meat_Boy">Super Meat Boy</a> (the successor to Meat Boy, a Flash game) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celeste_(video_game)">Celeste</a> are great examples of communicating tacit knowledge through the design of a simulation.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrounds">Newgrounds</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBaum%27s_World">eBaum's World</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestar_Runner">Homestar Runner</a> were early examples of (arguably) computer-native media.</li>
<li>Hey, here's this episode's requisite link to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@T2TileProject">T2 Tile Project</a> and <a href="https://www.andrewwalpole.com/blog/an-introduction-to-robust-first-computation/">Robust-First Computing</a>. I should probably just create a hard-coded section of the episode page template linking to T2, The Witness, and Jack Rusher.</li>
<li>The pun-proof <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Sutherland">Ivan Sutherland</a> made <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchpad">Sketchpad</a>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planner_(programming_language)">Planner</a> exists.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3#Technical_specifications">PlayStation 3 Cell processor</a> was this weirdly parallel CPU that was a pain in the butt to program.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://3dconnexion.com/ca/spacemouse/">SpaceMouse</a></li>
</ul>
Put all metal back into the ground.
Music featured in this episode:
<ul>
<li>Fingers from <a href="https://ivanish.ca/this-score-is-butt-ugly/">This Score is Butt Ugly</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE1NyYT31Tw">The Sailor's Chorus</a> from Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.</li>
</ul>
! Send us <a href="mailto:admin@futureofcoding.org?subject=Email%20from%20a%20listener">email</a>, share your ideas in the <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/community">Slack</a>, and catch us at these normal places:
<ul>
<li>Ivan: <a href="https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://ivanish.ca/">Website</a></li>
<li>Jimmy: <a href="https://hachyderm.io/@jimmyhmiller">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/">Website</a></li>
<li>Lu: <a href="https://mas.to/@TodePond">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://www.todepond.com/">Website</a></li>
</ul>
See you in the future!
<a href="https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/71">https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/71</a>

Elephant in the Room

Dave Ackley's paper Beyond Efficiency is three pages long. With just these three pages, he mounts a compelling argument against the conventional way we engineer software. Instead of inflexibly insisting upon correctness, maybe allow a lil slop? Instead of chasing peak performance with cache and clever tricks, maybe measure many times before you cut. So in this episode, we're putting every CEO in the guillotine… (oh, that stands for "correctness and efficiency only", don't put us on a list)… and considering when, where, and how to do the robust thing.

Links

$ patreon.com/futureofcoding — The most recent bonus episode is a discussion with Stefan Lesser about new "laws of physics" we can invent inside the computer.

Don't destroy the earth, then make sure your thing can't be destroyed, then don't destroy your data, and finally, do your damn job, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
A Software Epiphany, and the accompanying HN discussion — giga viral, so sick
PartyKit? Nice!
What started as a simple todo list turned into an ocean of tech boy milk and, ultimately, the AI apocalypse.
Jepsen is a rough, rugged, deeply thoughtful and fantastically cool approach to distributed systems testing, by Kyle Kingsbury. Also, we didn't talk about it, but his reversing / hexing / typing / rewriting / unifying technical interview series is essential reading.
Ivan's examples of robustness vs efficiency were RAID, the CAP theorem, Automerge, the engineering of FoundationDB, and Byzantine fault tolerance— all of which stake out interesting territory in the efficiency/robustness tradeoff spectrum, all of which are about distributed systems.
Can programming be liberated from the von Neumann style?, a paper by John Backus.
We Don't Really Know How to Compute!, a talk by Gerald Sussman.
The Robust-First Computing Creed is rock solid.
The Wikipedia article on von Neumann architecture did not come through with the goods.
Ivan works with Alex Warth now, and thus may fairly speak in half-truths like "I've been working with constraints recently…"
The Demon Hoard Sort
Bogosort is never coming to Dreamberd
The Witness was made by Jonathan Blow, who has Aphantasia, but he also made a game called Braid, and Braid is good.
Datamosh is a creative misuse of the lack of robustness that comes from storing diffs instead of full state snapshots. Here's a lovely gallery of examples.
Abstraction by xkcd
Reverse Engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
Can't let Lu get through the above without derailing onto Fiverr, PCP, Fight Club, and the Dust Brothers.
Randy Newman was nearly quoted in Ackley's Indefinite Scalability for Living Computation — god help you if you read our show notes and don't listen to the episode.
"It is difficult", says Upton Sinclair when asked about Jimmy Miller being Jimmy Miller, and how we all ought to approach our own sense of Jimmy Miller.

Music featured in this episode:
Hawker News by user: spiralganglion
Corporate World by the Dust Brothers

No more jokes! Find us at these normal places:
Ivan: Mastodon • Website
Jimmy: Mastodon • Website
Lu: Mastodon • Website
Dave: Mastodon • Website

Send us email, share your ideas in our Slack, and support the show on Patreon. Yes, do all three please.

http://futureofcoding.org/episodes/70

<a href="https://www.cs.unm.edu/~ackley/">Dave Ackley</a>'s paper <a href="https://www.cs.unm.edu/~ackley/be-201301131528.pdf">Beyond Efficiency</a> is three pages long. With just these three pages, he mounts a compelling argument against the conventional way we engineer software. Instead of inflexibly insisting upon correctness, maybe allow a lil slop? Instead of chasing peak performance with cache and clever tricks, maybe measure many times before you cut. So in this episode, we're putting every CEO in the guillotine… (oh, that stands for "correctness and efficiency only", don't put us on a list)… and considering when, where, and how to do the robust thing.
Links
$ <a href="https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding">patreon.com/futureofcoding</a> — The most recent bonus episode is a discussion with Stefan Lesser about new "laws of physics" we can invent inside the computer.
Don't destroy the earth, then make sure your thing can't be destroyed, then don't destroy your data, and finally, do your damn job, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://johnwhiles.com/posts/programming-as-theory">A Software Epiphany</a>, and the accompanying <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38324486">HN discussion</a> — giga viral, so sick</li>
<li><a href="https://www.partykit.io/">PartyKit</a>? Nice!</li>
<li>What started as a <a href="https://mastodon.social/@TodePond@mas.to/111402970410628418">simple todo list</a> turned into an <a href="https://twitter.com/tldraw/status/1724892287304646868">ocean of tech boy milk</a> and, ultimately, the <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38309611">AI apocalypse</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://jepsen.io/">Jepsen</a> is a rough, rugged, deeply thoughtful and fantastically cool approach to distributed systems testing, by <a href="https://aphyr.com/">Kyle Kingsbury</a>. Also, we didn't talk about it, but his <a href="https://aphyr.com/posts/340-reversing-the-technical-interview">reversing</a> / <a href="https://aphyr.com/posts/341-hexing-the-technical-interview">hexing</a> / <a href="https://aphyr.com/posts/342-typing-the-technical-interview">typing</a> / <a href="https://aphyr.com/posts/353-rewriting-the-technical-interview">rewriting</a> / <a href="https://aphyr.com/posts/354-unifying-the-technical-interview">unifying</a> technical interview series is essential reading.</li>
<li>Ivan's examples of robustness vs efficiency were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID">RAID</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAP_theorem">CAP theorem</a>, <a href="https://automerge.org/">Automerge</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fFDFbi3toc">the engineering of FoundationDB</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault">Byzantine fault tolerance</a>— all of which stake out interesting territory in the efficiency/robustness tradeoff spectrum, all of which are about distributed systems.</li>
<li><a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/359576.359579">Can programming be liberated from the von Neumann style?</a>, a paper by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus">John Backus</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB5TrK7A4pI">We Don't Really Know How to Compute!</a>, a talk by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Jay_Sussman">Gerald Sussman</a>.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://andrewwalpole.com/blog/an-introduction-to-robust-first-computation/">Robust-First Computing Creed</a> is rock solid.</li>
<li>The Wikipedia article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture">von Neumann architecture</a> did not come through with the goods.</li>
<li>Ivan works with <a href="https://alexwarth.github.io/">Alex Warth</a> now, and thus may fairly speak in half-truths like "I've been working with constraints recently…"</li>
<li>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=helScS3coAE">Demon Hoard Sort</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogosort">Bogosort</a> is never coming to <a href="https://github.com/TodePond/DreamBerd">Dreamberd</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(2016_video_game)">The Witness</a> was made by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Blow">Jonathan Blow</a>, who has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia">Aphantasia</a>, but he also made a game called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braid_(video_game)">Braid</a>, and Braid is good.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compression_artifact#Artistic_use">Datamosh</a> is a creative misuse of the lack of robustness that comes from storing diffs instead of full state snapshots. Here's a <a href="https://eyecannndy.com/technique/glitch#datamosh">lovely gallery</a> of examples.</li>
<li><a href="https://xkcd.com/676/">Abstraction</a> by xkcd</li>
<li><a href="https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/">Reverse Engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine</a></li>
<li>Can't let Lu get through the above without derailing onto <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiverr">Fiverr</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phencyclidine">PCP</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club">Fight Club</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Brothers">Dust Brothers</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Newman">Randy Newman</a> was nearly quoted in Ackley's <a href="https://cdn.aaai.org/ojs/9802/9802-13-13330-1-2-20201228.pdf">Indefinite Scalability for Living Computation</a> — god help you if you read our show notes and don't listen to the episode.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21810-it-is-difficult-to-get-a-man-to-understand-something">"It is difficult"</a>, says <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upton_Sinclair">Upton Sinclair</a> when asked about Jimmy Miller being Jimmy Miller, and how we all ought to approach our own sense of Jimmy Miller.</li>
</ul>
Music featured in this episode:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://ivanish.ca/hawker-news">Hawker News</a> by <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=spiralganglion">user: spiralganglion</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAtX4PjUXrM">Corporate World</a> by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Brothers">Dust Brothers</a></li>
</ul>
No more jokes! Find us at these normal places:
<ul>
<li>Ivan: <a href="https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://ivanish.ca/">Website</a></li>
<li>Jimmy: <a href="https://hachyderm.io/@jimmyhmiller">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/">Website</a></li>
<li>Lu: <a href="https://mas.to/@TodePond">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://www.todepond.com/">Website</a></li>
<li>Dave: <a href="https://hachyderm.io/@livcomp">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://www.cs.unm.edu/~ackley/">Website</a></li>
</ul>
Send us <a href="mailto:admin@futureofcoding.org?subject=Email%20from%20a%20listener">email</a>, share your ideas in our <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/community">Slack</a>, and support the show on <a href="http://patreon.com/futureofcoding">Patreon</a>. Yes, do all three please.
http://futureofcoding.org/episodes/70

Coding On (the) Beach: Jason Brennan

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