This episode (Chase Van Etten & Daniel Keller) chat with Orion Reed (@OrionReedOne), a software engineer & researcher focused on the intersection of computing, human-systems interfaces, and emancipatory politics. Orion is engineer-in-residence at tldraw, researcher at Block Science, and contributor to the Liberatory Computing collective. His motto is “advocating widespread dissatisfaction with computing.”
Highlights:
The need for alternative visions for computing and reasons to be dissatisfied with the current state of software.
Some of the ways HCI research can assist in efforts to reorganize societal structures.
How left-leaning crypto-optimism went from being a central narrative to relatively niche over the last decade.
Integration domains and the need for more cross-pollination between disparate disciplines and communities
The potential for new TfT concepts like Spatial Canvases to push us out of our current siloed, windowed app based local maxima (Check out Orion’s talk on the topic)
Cool developments in AI enabled malleable software like Websim
The differences between ‘ephemeral’ and ‘compostable’ software
Artwork: René Magritte, “La Condition Humaine”, 1935
