Technology interaction and ethics: how to live a good life and make a better world

Bret Victor was once a "Human Interface Inventor" for Apple, and was apparently key to the iOS/tablet efforts at the company. In this hour-long presentation to CUSEC (Canadian University Software Engineering Conference), he delivers a stirring manifesto for interaction design and relates it to having a principled stand on technology and ethics. It's an extraordinary presentation, first for the dazzling technology on display, and second for the thoughtful way Victor connects it to a larger question of human ethics and life.

Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle (Thanks, Danny!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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kosmikray

zero comments? are you all asleep? this is the sweetest mind-bender/life-changer you’ll ever see, especially with a tech pedigree. I think being creative is the ONLY real reason to come to this planet, and here is a Master of a visionary life for that pursuit. Yes, we can change the world.
ialreadyexist

This is a really good talk. Ya’ll should watch.
MacLuddite

That is actually amazing.
http://losinfinitos.tumblr.com Haz 0

Principle means doesn’t mean much if it is only a principle to yourself or a selected few. An idea’s connection to the well-being of others is what makes it important. Creating closed-source material only benefits a few, no matter the strength of the underlying principles.
- ialreadyexist
  
  I’m thinking you either didn’t watch it or missed the point entirely.
http://twitter.com/renedepaula rene de paula jr

I confess: I was expecting something different than a guy coding in real time. the title, the openculture twitts, everything pointed to something of general interest, not a presentation like the ones you see in Microsoft’s events where a geek starts talking while typing in Visual Studio.
HahTse

What IDE is that? And what language?
- http://forresto.com/ Forrest O.
  
  His own IDE, which isn’t public, and JavaScript. Field is working on something in this direction that is available now: http://openendedgroup.com/field/wiki/OnlinePlugin + https://vimeo.com/31452523
lumpygravy2

Yer Vimeo links are broken
Mushimatosis

he’s a great speaker, I would hire him for the apple keynotes, he looks able to fill Jobs Shoes
- simonbarsinister
  
  If you peruse his web site you’ll find he’s done working for Apple. It sounds like he had a good run but he’s ready to move on to other things.
chadchabot

This was my first CUSEC, and it was a great time.
I really enjoyed Bret’s talk, and it helped with some of the internal struggles that I’ve had over the years during my CompSci education.
Chiefly that it’s okay to care, to want your work to matter, and not just in terms of dollars and units shipped.

Something that kept coming up from others was that this was a “mind blowing” presentation. And I suppose for a lot of the people there that was the case: considering that we as tool makers aren’t operating separate and distinct from other parts of our society and world.
I wish that weren’t the case; that the engineers and devs and nerds and geeks in the audience had greater aspirations/purpose for their work from day one. Whether that is a perspective of service to humanity, the environment, art, whatever.
Stuck-Record

As an illustrator I have to say that this was inspiring. Not just from a philosophical viewpoint, but from seeing an animation tool that I actually want to use. One that speaks to the artist as opposed to the geek.

Crying shame you can’t buy that.
http://www.zachstronaut.com/ zachstronaut

I was so excited by, and so identified with, the first half of this presentation that I sent it out to everybody I knew and put a super excited post about how important it was for programmers to watch this video in the BoingBoing submitterator.

Then I watched the second half, and realized this video was even more important and had a much bigger message.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a presentation that I’ve identified with more.

The tools are totally amazing. They demonstrate things I’ve thought about quite a bit. In fact, I program the way he shows without those awesome tools… I reload and rerun my code very frequently so I can get feedback often. I play with variable values. Over the last 20 years of programming I’ve developed an ability to simulate and visualize multiple code path executions in realtime in my head while I program. It sure would be nice to have these tools and free up some brain space.

And the message he delivers in the second half is pitch perfect. I’m not even sure I have words for my reaction yet.
http://twitter.com/landay James Landay

very nice. His animation tool looks like an update of k-sketch!
http://www.k-sketch.org/ (done years ago)
http://xmacex.wordpress.com Mace Ojala

That was quite an epic talk, thanks :)
MattInBrooklyn

So where do we get this dude’s cool JS editor?