Bret Victor strikes again

November 5, 2013 5:57 AM

Media for Thinking the Unthinkable
posted by a snickering nuthatch (10 comments total)

Bret Victor's personal note about this presentation.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 6:24 AM on November 5, 2013 [5 favorites]

I'd seen and loved the talk behind this particular instance of Bret Victor's awesomeness, but I was unaware that he'd applied the ideas of his talk to the presentation of the talk itself. So glad I clicked though:

...a talk is a poor knowledge-container. It's opaque. The viewer can't skim, browse, or get a gist at a glance. Ideas can't be looked up as needed; they feel fleeting. The medium works well for entertainment — watch and enjoy — but not for a toolbox.

This page is an attempt to "explode" a demo-driven talk into a skimmable, browsable, gistable form, where individual ideas can be quickly referenced later.

Brilliant. Bret Victor is constantly inspiring.
posted by daveliepmann at 6:39 AM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

To me, his most inspiring talk is Inventing on Principle, in which he makes (careful, limited) analogies to social justice in order to challenge programmers to choose a motivation for their work.

His most pointed talk is The Future Of Programming, which uses the gimmick of time travel to a delightful degree of silliness.
posted by daveliepmann at 6:44 AM on November 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

For a talk about thinking the unthinkable, it needed more eldritch horror.
posted by Cash4Lead at 7:07 AM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
posted by FatherDagon at 8:17 AM on November 5, 2013 [4 favorites]

The personal note Jpfed linked to above is also fantastic. I highly suggest reading that as well.

This is awe inspiring. Thanks!
posted by Freen at 8:26 AM on November 5, 2013

If an artist were really thinking the unthinkable, he'd be arrested or at the very least blackballed by an internet posse.

Since this does not happen, I will take it to mean that we have reached the end of the art project and now live in Utopia.
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 10:18 AM on November 5, 2013

holy crap. that was fantastic. time to read/watch everything this guy has ever made, i think
posted by a birds at 10:30 AM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

a birds: yes, it is a very worthwhile adventure.
posted by Freen at 11:40 AM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

That was really remarkable. Thanks for posting.

My ex-husband was a scientist. I never understood what he did, so I always used to ask him to just add the word "Hat" at the end of whatever he was describing. I still didn't understand, but at least it gave me a picture. I might not know what Endothelial-monocyte activating polypeptide was, but I could definitely visualize an endothelial-monocyte activating polypeptide hat. (This may be why we are divorced.)

This is way better.
posted by Mchelly at 12:27 PM on November 7, 2013