The Evolution of Software and Society

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