This episode (⁠Chase Van Etten⁠ & ⁠Daniel Keller⁠) chat with Orion Reed (@OrionReedOne), a software engineer & researcher focused on the intersection of computing, human-systems interfaces, and emancipatory politics. Orion is engineer-in-residence at tldraw, researcher at Block Science, and contributor to the Liberatory Computing collective. His motto is “advocating widespread dissatisfaction with computing.”

Highlights:

  • The need for alternative visions for computing and reasons to be dissatisfied with the current state of software.
  • Some of the ways HCI research can assist in efforts to reorganize societal structures.
  • How left-leaning crypto-optimism went from being a central narrative to relatively niche over the last decade.
  • Integration domains and the need for more cross-pollination between disparate disciplines and communities.
  • The potential for new TfT concepts like Spatial Canvases to push us out of our current siloed, windowed app based local maxima (Check out Orion’s talk on the topic).
  • Cool developments in AI enabled malleable software like Websim.
  • The differences between ‘ephemeral’ and ‘compostable’ software.

Artwork: René Magritte, “La Condition Humaine”, 1935