Thursday, February 23, 2006

Organick Lecture - University of Utah - Alan Kay (Part II) After a great dinner at a local Greek restaurant, we returned to the University of Utah to listen to the second presentation by Alan Kay - Learners, Powerful Ideas, and the $100 Laptop As I have been following the progress of the $100 Laptop project, I have a lot of my own ideas of where this device might succeed, and what it might become. I'm looking forward to what Alan has to say about this space. Is a "$100 Laptop" Possible? Alans slide showed a portable DVD player that has a 7" TFT LCD screen. The price on this product is $122.99 on-line. Obviously, this proves out the fact that the raw hardware of a $100 Laptop is quite possible. Swap the DVD drive for a keyboard, and add some flash memory and you have a decent computer. With the addition of a real manufacturer - Quanta - everything has started to fall into place. Alan brought up an interesting point where these devices could create a huge grey-market, where the laptops might not actually make it to children. Instead, they might be grabbed up and used by others ... sold for various profits. They are intending to add features to the products so that they are customized to the child so that it will not work for anybody but that child. The laptop is going to have mesh networking as a core feature, and they are exploring various power options. The hand-crank is the most well known, but they are also working on a tredle(?) design for foot powering the device. The "layers" of this device are: The $100 hardware - the foundation for everything Free Software - the operating system from RedHat and Squeak? Authoring & User Interface - the first level of interaction with children Content & Pedagogy - interaction to educate Mentoring - a large list of things we don't know how to make happen! His comment refering to this list of layers - The Music Isn't In The Piano! Future of Printing? Alan again went through his progression of the history of printing. Where a new medium appears, and initially is used to mimic the older mediums. It was 100 years after the creation of the printing press that this new medium was exploited to massively alter global society. It finally provided for the presentation and distribution of radical new ideas. How the Mind Works Neuro-ethology is a newer study of the brain and behavior. He talked about research being done with babies, and at 8 weeks some of the things that they are capable of doing. One of these was that a baby that young was able to use an artificial nipple, with some electronics attached, to control the focus of a slide projector showing a picture of their mother. Amazing ... He also talked about other pattern recognition tests done, and the ability of babies to show interest in various patterns ... and the increase in interest in more complex patterns as the baby develops. This led to a discussion of Human Universals vs. non-Universals. Those things found in almost every culture around the world ... vs. those things that are not. Examples of the Universals: Social, Communications, Language, Culture, Fantasies, Stories, Loud Noises & Snakes - he had a longer list but these were very common and present in over 300 cultures studied. Thge non-Universals are things that modern education are all about: Democracy, advanced mathematics, equal rights, etc. - these are the things that are only gained through deep thinking and teaching. This appears to be much of what Alan believes can be brought to more cultures in the world using the $100 Laptop! He went on to do demonstrations of using Squeak, and talking about some of the amazing educational advances that have been taking place. All of which will only be available to more and more people on earth. Overall, it was a great presentation and shows the commitment that Alan has to making a difference in the world with his talents and abilities. And the $100 Laptop will become a reality ... and is only going to spur more developments in this space. Some of my final thoughts linked to his comments about security of the devices, etc. I start to wonder what is going to occur as unscrupulous people choose to take advantage of the children who are given these machines. I also start to wonder how these children in developing countries might end up being "remotely exploited" over the Internet by these same types of people ... In either case, it is going to open whole new channels of communications, and create a very different networked world ... with whole new sets of eyeballs, and new participants in globalization. The next 10 years are going to be amazing to live through! [tags: alankay alan kay future $100laptop singularity utah organick] 8:02:07 PM      Organick Lecture - University of Utah - Alan Kay Phil Windley blogged about this lecture series, and the fact that Alan Kay was speaking today. I had to take the time to come and hear Alan, as his focus on computing for children and education demonstrates a true commitment to the future. I have often used his quote: The best way to predict the future is to invent it. His opening slide had the quote ... slightly modified ... toggling between: Is the Best Way To Predict The Future To Invent It? Is the Best Way To Predict The Future To Prevent It? His talk is about about Computer Science and Software Engineering ... are they Oxymorons? Some points from his talk: he feels that our industry has been mired for years ... perhaps since the 1970's the commercialization of Personal Computers was a tremendous distraction from computer science ... and we may never recover from this distraction computer science is teaching non-scalable algorythms and data structures this is like teaching gears ... something that is non-scalable the Internet is a vastly different solution that is highly distributed and operates non-stop ... and scales the human body consists of 100 trillions cells, created through only 50 cell divisions all of the atoms in your body have been changed out within the last 7 years ... even your bones! He talked about Bob Barton, and his early work and papers. He referenced a paper that outlines seven of the top ten things that people ought to know about software. He said it is worth reading the six page paper ... that includes a full page bashing IBM. The slide about Bob referenced the Burroughs B5000 built in 1961. Bob taught by destroying traditional thought ... allowing more freedom to contemplate what is possible. He began to talk about "engineering" and gave several examples of what he feels is real engineering - the building of the Empire State Building (<3000 people for <11 months start to occupancy), the massive pumps that survived the longest during the Katrina hurricane - built in 1922 and 1912! He talked about the real meaning of the word "Architecture" - the building of arches. He used this to connect analogies of Microsoft Windows, and the ancient pyramids of Egypt. The Egyptians had no arches, and so they built the pyramids by piling on rock, creating a "garbage dump", and then covering it with a "pretty UI". It was only those who understood and perfected the building of arches that truly developed architecture. Humans have been on earth for ~100,000+ years, however Science has only been around for ~400. But it didn't emerge from genetic evolution ... so Science has always existed. He then showed the video called "Private Universe" which was a series of interviews with Harvard University graduates who were being asked basic questions about "What causes the seasons?" and "What causes the phases of the moon?" The majority were not able to answer accurately. I have to admit that I stopped taking notes as Alan went into a very interesting conversation about the Future of Printing. He started to talk about the original printing press, and how it immediately began to be used to mimic the handwritten manuscript books of the time ... instead of creating a new type of communications ... a new medium to argue within society and to present new ideas. Alan used this as a way to describe the revelation that hit him when he first thought of children using computers. Up to that point, they had simply thought of computers looking like terminals, without the mainframe. He drew a cartoon back in the 1960s of children using what would become his idea of the dynabook. He emphasized the stagnent aspects of computer science and software engineering ... at the end he questioned how students of these disciplines were using yesterdays technologies - hardware and software - when trying to create the solutions of the future. He commented that it was only because his team was using $20,000 computers more powerful than anything in its time, that they were able to create solutions for the future. This is a really good point ... As usual ... an amazing presentation that spurs a lot of thoughts. [tags: software computer science engineering alankay alan kay future utah organick] 4:07:32 PM      February CTO Breakfast Wow ... what a crowd! This morning was quite packed, and there was a good variety of people from many roles in Utah companies. Phil started off talking with Hilarie Orman from Purple Streak. It turns out that Phil was familiar with some of the previous work of Hilarie, and some of the people that she worked with. This led into an interesting conversation about security, encryption, and quantum computing. She was involved in the Demo Conference ... on a security panel. She mentioned that Koogle(?) was one of the more interesting demos. Bruce Grant started to talk about his perspectives of Demo, and some of the mobile applications and thoughts on where mobile devices are going. He talked about the difficulty in developing software for these devices due to all of the various operating systems, etc. He also commented that there will be some sort of consolidation ... which I agree with. This is a standard EVO-DEVO pattern. I commented that I believe that the Negroponte $100 laptop is going to be one of the catalysts that is going to cause the consolidation. I'm not so sure that this device is going to be in high demand for the developed world, however it is going to drive innovation and solutions that wil be delivered at a slightly higher price point. I missed a good bit of conversation going to get some food, but when I returned we were well into a conversation about AJAX, and the new Web 2.0 trends. One of the people brought up a new Marc Andreessen project called Ning. Very cool ... some very innovative ideas as a platform for the creation and sharing of social application. This is a variation on JotSpot ... and I'm going to do some experimenting. Fun morning ... [tags: utahctobreakfast security encryption ning] 9:57:32 AM

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