3 ms·
Yes his learnable programming is about improving existing programming tools, but he treats that as a diversion, his other stuff seems quite different. His rece
by yaxu 13y ago
Yes his learnable programming is about improving existing programming tools, but he treats that as a diversion, his other stuff seems quite different.
His recent talk calls for a break from established norms and a return to the free thinking of the early days of computer science. His work combining geometry with syntax (which is also an interest of mine) follows on from that early work, it's as though he's treating the last few decades of software engineering as a diversion.
To me it's quite clear that Victor is calling for something more akin to augmenting and extending human thought, maybe your 'cybernetic melding'. He argues that this software will be used in ways which we cannot yet understand -- he thinks it'll be future generations who develop use and understanding for such technology, he's just chipping away at the possibilities.
But maybe your more approach is more optimistic in this regard, in that you're finding ways that could improve programmers' lives now.
I think my approach is optimistic too, in developing technology through use, taking communities of practice as a starting point, not an end goal.
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago> He argues that this software will be used in ways which we cannot yet understand I feel the same way. > But maybe your more approach is more optimistic in this regard, in that you're finding ways that could improve programmers' lives now. I'm actually pessimistic that we have much time to innovate. I see programming as a viable profession only for at most another 20 years; by then speech dialogue based systems (aka AIs) are advanced enough to take over on what were programming these tasks before.
- yaxu 13y agoI don't see a need for pessimism there. If speech is text plus prosody, then I see adding a prosodic channel to the programming interface as augmenting/enriching programming languages, not replacing them. I also don't think speech is 'special' in terms of intelligence (e.g. Deaf people are just as intelligent), so enriching text could just as easily come in a different form of imagery (prosody being a form of mental imagery) such as drawing. And that is the area that Victor is working in.