Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today • Hacker News Board

Re: Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

#151

Post by cconroy » Mon, Jun 20, 2016, 7:16 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #135

alankay1 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I'd ask "What programming language design would help us think a lot better than we do now (we are currently terrible!) Certainly, in this day and age, the lack of safe meta-definition is pretty much shocking.

Could you give an example of what you mean by "safe meta-definition"? I'd like to understand this better.

Me too. But if he doesn't answer it he may mean how languages don't have a well designed meta protocol. See the one they built for CLOS in that good book.

Re: Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

#152

Post by mythz » Mon, Jun 20, 2016, 7:16 PM UTC

Hi Alan,

You've been a long-time proponent for creating educational software (e.g squeak etoys) helping teach kids how to program and have been fairly critical of the iPad in the past. What are your thoughts on Apple's new iPad Swift playground (http://www.apple.com/swift/playgrounds/) in teaching kids how to learn how to program in Swift?

Do you think UI aesthetics are important in software for kids?

Re: Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

#153

Post by dang » Mon, Jun 20, 2016, 7:17 PM UTC

olantonan wrote: post #145

Reddit commenter implying this AMA is fake. How are HN accounts verified? How do we know this is a real AMA? Just curious.

I personally vouch that this isn't fake. (But anyone familiar with Alan's work could tell that just from reading his comments here—who could possibly fake these?)

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11940227 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

#154

Post by gus_massa » Mon, Jun 20, 2016, 7:18 PM UTC

olantonan wrote: post #145

Reddit commenter implying this AMA is fake. How are HN accounts verified? How do we know this is a real AMA? Just curious.

In this kind of cases you can send an emails to the mods hn@ycombinator.com . Most of the times dang replies very soon. (And if the story is a fake, they'd usually remove it from the front page.)

Re: Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

#155

Post by kartD » Mon, Jun 20, 2016, 7:18 PM UTC

alankay1 wrote: post #149

kartD wrote: post #11

Hi Alan, What do think about the current state of language design (Swift, Rust, Go)? Anything that makes you happy/annoys you?

I think all languages today annoy me -- just put me down as a grump. They seem to be at a very weak level of discourse for the 21st century. (But a few are fun when looked at from the perspectives of the past e.g. Erlang ...)

I see, is there anything you see today that you like? (Coq, Idris maybe?)

Re: Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

#156

Post by azeirah » Mon, Jun 20, 2016, 7:19 PM UTC

Hi Alan, this is a bit of a long shot, but I'd like to try anyway. I've been following CDG from early on, and am really interested in the exploratory research that's going on in there. I'm a 20 year old computer science student looking for an internship, would it at all be possible to pursue an internship at CDG? My primary selling point is that, given the right environment, I have a lot of motivation.

I understand this is not the right place to discuss these matters, but I know it's highly likely that this message will be read here, I am happy to take this topic elsewhere.

Re: Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

#157

Post by ianbicking » Mon, Jun 20, 2016, 7:19 PM UTC

1. After Engelbart's group disbanded it seemed like he ended up in the wilderness for a long time, and focused his attention on management. I'll project onto him and would guess that he felt more constrained by his social or economic context than he was by technology, that he envisioned possibilities that were unattainable for reasons that weren't technical. I'm curious if you do or have felt the same way, and if have any intuitions about how to approach those problems.

2. What are your opinions on Worse Is Better (https://www.dreamsongs.com/RiseOfWorseIsBetter.html)? It seems to me like you pursue the diamond-like jewel, but maybe that's not how you see it. (Just noticed you answered this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11940276)

3. I've found the Situated Learning perspective interesting (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situated_learning). At least I think about it when I feel grumpy about all the young kids and Node.js, and I genuinely like that they are excited about what they are doing, but it seems like they are on a mission to rediscover EVERYTHING, one technology and one long discussion at a time. But they are a community of learning, and maybe everyone (or every community) does have to do that if they are to apply creativity and take ownership over the next step. Is there a better way?

Re: Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

#158

Post by alankay » Mon, Jun 20, 2016, 7:20 PM UTC

dookahku wrote: post #146

You invented a lot of what I'm using this very instant to compose this message. I yearn to do great works of engineering and art, which I consider what you have done. How do you come up with ideas?

There's coming up with ideas: learn to dream while you are awake, the ideas are there.

There's coming up with a good idea: learn how to not get buried in your ideas (most are mediocre down to bad even for people who have "good idea skills"!)

I write down ideas in notebooks to get rid of them. Every once in a while one will capture a different point of view.

And, there's the Princeton Tea joke of scientists comparing what they did for ideas. One says "I have them in the middle of the night so I have a pad by my bed". Another says "I have them in the shower so I have a grease pencil to write them on the walls". Einstein was listening and they asked him about his ideas. He said "I don't know, I've only had two!"

(Some people are better at filtering than others ...)

Re: Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

#159

Post by olantonan » Mon, Jun 20, 2016, 7:20 PM UTC

gus_massa wrote: post #154

olantonan wrote: post #145

Reddit commenter implying this AMA is fake. How are HN accounts verified? How do we know this is a real AMA? Just curious.

In this kind of cases you can send an emails to the mods hn@ycombinator.com . Most of the times dang replies very soon. (And if the story is a fake, they'd usually remove it from the front page.)

Thanks, I'll do that. Looks legit to me, but got curious about the verification process.

Re: Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

#160

Post by snowwrestler » Mon, Jun 20, 2016, 7:20 PM UTC

I recall reading an article about 10 years ago describing a PARC research project in which networked computers with antennae were placed throughout a set of rooms, and the subject carried a small transmitter with them from room to room. As the computer in each room detected the transmitter, it triggered actions in each room. I think it was called "ambient computing."

Does this ring a bell for you? I have searched for this article recently and not been able to find it again.