Future of Coding

A classic "80-year predictions" episode. How did we do, humanity? Here's the article (free with ads): As We May Think [https://worrydream.com/refs/Bush%20-%20As%20We%20May%20Think%20(Life%20Magazine%209-10-1945).pdf] Links $ Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding] * We're considering changing The Name [https://futureofcoding.org/the-name] of the FoC community, podcast, et cetera. * Transatlantic Accent [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_American_Speech], and all the ships at sea. * This episode's advertisements: Ex-Lax [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senna_glycoside], Mifflin [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isopropyl_alcohol#Medical], et cetera. * The New Media Reader [https://www.newmediareader.com/] is a good read(er). * Blue Prince [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2hB9PjugK0] is surely everyone's 2025 GOTY [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_the_Year_awards]. You'll find ample discussion [https://www.patreon.com/posts/exasperated-127597451] of its twisty design [https://www.patreon.com/posts/hour-and-half-of-129954399] in our bonus feed. * Oppenheimer [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK6ldnjE3Y0] was probably my least favourite David Nolen movie. * ENIAC [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC] was, for a time, the computer. * Engelbart [https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/056] * The Polaroid instant camera [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_camera] dates back to the 1940s! * Google Glass [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glass#Criticism] and Ray-Ban Meta [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray-Ban_Meta#Privacy_and_ethical_concerns], sigh * Wikipedia's List of Existing Technologies Predicted in Science Fiction [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_existing_technologies_predicted_in_science_fiction] * Apparently microfilm and microfiche are both instances of microform [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microform]. * Boy Milk [https://earthsown.com/products/organic-almond-unsweetened-original-chilled-carton/], no explanation needed. * Sean M. Carroll [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_M._Carroll], physicist. * Claude Shannon [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon], information theorist ;) * AI Is Not Your Friend [https://archive.ph/SfhuK] appeared in The Atlantic on May 9th, 2025. * Amazon Mechanical Turk [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Mechanical_Turk] is "artificial artificial intelligence". * Awesome [https://github.com/topics/awesome] GitHub lists * Daring Fireball [https://daringfireball.net/] and Kottke.org [https://kottke.org/] are two long-running blogs that helped popularize the "linkblog" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linklog] form. * The Wirecutter [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirecutter_(website)] was our previous top pick for product recommendations, but their history of shilling junk and our growing concerns about e-waste have led us to downgrade them in our rankings. * Devine [https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/045] (the other Lu) maintains a pair of wikis, one for hundredrabbits [https://100r.co/site/knowledge.html] and another for research and projects [https://wiki.xxiivv.com/]. * Alexander Obenauer [https://alexanderobenauer.com/] also does a lovely job publishing research notes. * Unison [https://www.unison-lang.org/] and Dynamicland [https://dynamicland.org/] are two strong visions for the future of computing. Music: * lemon (tussed/screwed because everyone listens at 2x) ! Send us email [admin@futureofcoding.org?subject=Email%20from%20a%20listener], join the FoC community [https://futureofcoding.org/community], and find us on-line: * I: 🐘 [https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion] 🦋 [https://bsky.app/profile/spiralganglion.com] 🌐 [https://ivanish.ca/] * J: 🐘 [https://hachyderm.io/@jimmyhmiller] 🦋 [https://bsky.app/profile/jimmyhmiller.bsky.social] 🌐 [https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/] * K: N/A * L: 🐘 [https://mas.to/@todepond] 🦋 [https://bsky.app/profile/todepond.com] 🌐 [https://www.todepond.com/] See you in the future! https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/077 [https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/077] Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding [https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

You know Alan Turing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing], right? And the Turing test [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test]? Have you actually read the paper that introduced it, Computing Machinery and Intelligence [https://courses.cs.umbc.edu/471/papers/turing.pdf]? No?! You… you are not prepared. ---------------------------------------- With very special guest: Felienne Hermans [https://www.felienne.com/] Notes $ Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding] * Mystery AI Hype Theatre 3000 [https://www.dair-institute.org/maiht3k/] podcast, from Emily M. Bender [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_M._Bender] and Alex Hanna [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Hanna_%28research_scientist%29]. "Always read the footnotes" * [The Language Game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_game_(philosophy) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_game_(philosophy)] by Ludwig Wittgenstein [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein] * Can Machines Think? [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/13C1D582F132D7F24734C48683AA3552/S003181910002266Xa.pdf/can-machines-think.pdf] by W. "Billy" Mays [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfe_Mays] * Lu's paper with Dave Ackley [https://www.cs.unm.edu/~ackley/], Dialogues on Natural Code [https://www.todepond.com/code/] describes how the symbiote will spread to consume all of humanity. * Reclaiming AI as a Theoretical Tool for Cognitive Science [https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42113-024-00217-5.pdf] by Iris van Rooij [https://irisvanrooijcogsci.com] et al. * Ned Block [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Block]'s Blockhead [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockhead_(thought_experiment)] * Nick Cave [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Cave]'s thoughts on AI song lyrics [https://www.theredhandfiles.com/chat-gpt-what-do-you-think/]. For instance: "Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite. […] It is the breathless confrontation with one’s vulnerability, one’s perilousness, one’s smallness, pitted against a sense of sudden shocking discovery; it is the redemptive artistic act that stirs the heart of the listener, where the listener recognizes in the inner workings of the song their own blood, their own struggle, their own suffering." * What Computers Can't Do [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Dreyfus%27s_views_on_artificial_intelligence] by Hubert Dryfus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Dreyfus] * Wittgenstein on Rules [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittgenstein_on_Rules_and_Private_Language] by Saul Kripke [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Kripke] * Is chess the drosophila of artificial intelligence? [https://homes.luddy.indiana.edu/nensmeng/files/Ensmenger2012-Chess.pdf] by Nathan Ensmenger [https://luddy.indiana.edu/contact/profile/?profile_id=197] * Computers as Theatre [https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~social/reading/Laurel-ComputersAsTheatre.pdf] by Brenda Laurel [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Laurel] ! Send us email [admin@futureofcoding.org?subject=Email%20from%20a%20listener], especially questions or topics you'd like us to discuss on future episodes, share your wildest ideas in the Slack [https://futureofcoding.org/community], and: * IVAN: 🐘 [https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion] 🦋 [https://bsky.app/profile/spiralganglion.com] 🌐 [https://ivanish.ca/] * JIMM: 🐘 [https://hachyderm.io/@jimmyhmiller] 🦋 [https://bsky.app/profile/jimmyhmiller.bsky.social] 🌐 [https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/] * TODE: 🐘 [https://mas.to/@todepond] 🦋 [https://bsky.app/profile/todepond.com] 🌐 [https://www.todepond.com/] * FELI: 🐘 [https://mastodon.social/@Felienne] 🦋 [https://bsky.app/profile/felienne.bsky.social] 🌐 [https://www.felienne.com/] See you in the future! https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/076 [https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/076] Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding [https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

In the academic field of programming language research, there are a few prestigious conferences that you must present at to advance in your career. These conferences are rather selective about which presentations they'll accept. If your research work involves proving formal properties about a programming language, you'll have their ear. But if your work looks at, say, the human factors of language design, you might as well not bother applying — and thus, not bother pursuing that work in the first place. Why is the formalistic, systems-focused work elevated, and the human-focused work diminished? And what are the downstream consequences, the self-reinforcing feedback loops that come from this narrow focus? In this episode we discuss a paper by Felienne Hermans [https://www.felienne.com/] and Ari Schlesinger [https://arischlesinger.com/] titled, A case for Feminism in Programming Language Design [https://www.felienne.com/archives/8470]. It applies the lens of intersectional feminism to reveal a startling lack of "Yes, and…" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes,_and...] in academic computer science, where valuable avenues of inquiry are closed off, careers are stifled, and people are unintentionally driven away from contributing to the field, simply because their passions and expertise don't conform to a set of invisible expectations. Through heartbreaking personal anecdotes and extensive supporting references, the paper makes the case that there's a lot of high-value greenfield work to be done, and people who would love to do it — but we will need to collectively identify, understand, and then fix a few broken incentives before it'll happen. Notes $ Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding] * Polypad [https://polypad.amplify.com/], dubbed the "best piece of education software for smartboards" by published academic Luke Wilson * Or is it Mathigon [https://mathigon.org/]? "Looks like a nice Desmos [https://www.desmos.com/]", opines enterprise sales expert Ivan Reese. * Market💡Facts.ca [https://web.archive.org/web/20241124083409/https://www.marketfacts.ca/home/] * Hedy [https://www.hedy.org], a multi-lingual programming environment for the classroom created by Felienne. Welcome to the TALK BLOC: * Felienne Hermans at Onward! 2024: A case for Feminism in Programming Language Design [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Br66SUjsdQ&t=12129] * Ivan and Alex Warth at LIVE 2024: Inkling [https://www.inkandswitch.com/ink/notes/inkling-live-presentation/] * Lu at LIVE 2024: Arroost [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GOeYylCMJI&t=12480] * Lu at Onward! 2024: Dialogs on Natural Code [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Br66SUjsdQ&t=15105] * Discovering Your Software Umwelt [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Br66SUjsdQ&t=23984s] by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, Allen Wirfs-Brock, and Jordan Wirfs-Brock * A New Cognitive Perspective on Simplicity in System and Product Design [https://stefanlesser.substack.com/p/video-and-transcript-of-my-presentation] by FoC community member and previous bonus episode guest [https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-physics-with-99281699], Stefan Lesser * Redressing the Balance: A Yin-Yang Perspective on Information Technology [https://archive.org/details/onward-redressing-the-balance] by FoC community member Konrad Hinsen * Foremost among the contributions to society by Icebergs are their inspiration of the meme [https://suricrasia.online/iceberg/] * Alex McLean [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_McLean] as in Insane in the Membrane [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RijB8wnJCN0] * FOUR FOUR [https://ivanish.ca/four-four/] * Mary Shaw, previous guest [https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/069] * Zachtronics [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachtronics] make some hard puzzle games. * Define Define [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMklf0vUl18], a really great video about that. * Oh, you question toxic masculinity, yet you live within the gender binary? [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-should-improve-society-somewhat] ! Send us email [admin@futureofcoding.org?subject=Email%20from%20a%20listener], especially if you're an avid listener who happens to work for a placement agency and knows an AI thought leader who has advised 5000 startups and would be a great fit for our show, share your ideas in the Slack [https://futureofcoding.org/community], and: * Eats: Mastodon [https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion] • Website [https://ivanish.ca/] * Shoots: Mastodon [https://hachyderm.io/@jimmyhmiller] • Website [https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/] * Leaves: Mastodon [https://mas.to/@todepond] • Website [https://www.todepond.com/] See you in the future! https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/75 Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding [https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

"Is the whole universe a computer? [https://marksprevak.com/pdf/paper/Sprevak---The%20Computable%20Universe.pdf]", ask Jack Copeland, Mark Sprevak, and Oron Shagrir in chapter 41 of the book The Turing Guide [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turing_Guide]. They split this question in two, first asking whether the universe itself is a computer, then whether the universe could even be computed. These are lofty, unanswerable questions, sure, but they encroach on our territory — philosophy, automata, nonsense. So, in our usual reverent style and with attentive pacing, the three of us explore the paper, the questions, the answers they choose to highlight, and even share a few perfectly reasonable answers of our own. Links $ Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding] In no particular order: * Carl Sagan [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan] * What it means to be open [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJzV0CX0q8o] was Lu's talk at Heart of Clojure * Rudy Rucker [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Rucker] * Is the brain a digital computer? [https://courses.cs.umbc.edu/graduate/671/fall21/resources/searle_2002.pdf] by John Searle * The Plankth of time [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_units#Planck_time]. * C is Not a Low-Level Language [https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3212479] by David Chisnall * The Connection Machine!! [https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion/112578884737169457] * Komgloverav… Komolgorov… [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolmogorov_complexity] * Outer Worlds? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Wilds] * Outer Wilds? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outer_Worlds] * The Witness [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHt4uJyhJo8] Music featured in this episode: * No! That's a spoiler. No way I'm telling you. ! Send us email [admin@futureofcoding.org?subject=Email%20from%20a%20listener], share your ideas in the Slack [https://futureofcoding.org/community], and catch us while you still can: * Carl: Mastodon [https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion] • Website [https://ivanish.ca/] * Jimmy: Mastodon [https://hachyderm.io/@jimmyhmiller] • Website [https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/] * Lu: Mastodon [https://mas.to/@todepond] • Website [https://www.todepond.com/] See you in the future! https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/74 [https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/74] Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding [https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Alexander Repenning [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Repenning] created AgentSheets [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AgentSheets], an environment to help kids develop computational thinking skills. It wrapped an unusual computational model with an even more unusual user interface. The result was divisive. It inspired so many other projects, whilst being rejected at every turn and failing to catch on the way Scratch later did. So in 2017, Repenning published this obit of a paper, Moving Beyond Syntax: Lessons from 20 Years of Blocks Programming in AgentSheets [https://agentsheets.com/img/educators/20YearsofBlockProgramingLessonsLearned_published.pdf], which covers his findings over the years as AgentSheets evolved and transformed, and gives perspective on block-based programming, programming-by-example, agents / rule / rewrite systems, automata, and more. This is probably the most "normal" episode we've done in a while — we stay close to the text and un-clam many a thought-tickling pearl. I'm saying that sincerely now to throw you off our scent the next time we get totally lost in the weeds. I hear a clock ticking. Links $ Do you want to move beyond syntax? Frustrated by a lack of syntactic, semantic, or pragmatic support? Join our Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding]! Choose the tier that best reflects your personal vision of the future of coding. Get (frequently unhinged) monthly bonus content. Most of all: let us know that you enjoy this thing we do, and help us keep doing it for years to come. * Argos [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argos_(retailer)], for our non-UK listeners. They were acquired by future TodePond sponsor, Sainsbury's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainsbury%27s]. * Once again, I am asking for your Marcel Goethals [https://mastodon.social/@wolkenmachine] makes a lot of cool weird stuff and is a choice follow. * Scratch [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_(programming_language)] isn't baby programming. Also, you should try this bizarre game [https://github.com/ivanreese/2222] Ivan programmed in 3 blocks of Scratch. * Sandspiel Studio [https://studio.sandspiel.club/] is a delightful block-based sand programming simulator automata environment. Here's a video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecCVor7mJ6o] of Lu and Max introducing it. * Simple Made Easy [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxdOUGdseq4], a seminal talk by Rich Hickey [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Hickey]. Still hits, all these years later. * Someday we'll do an episode on speech acts [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_act]. * Rewrite rules are one example of rewriting [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewriting] in computing. * Lu's talk —and I quote— "at Cellpond", was actually at SPLASH, about Cellpond, and it's a good talk [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQgxFuw8f1U], about —and I quote— "actually, what if they didn't give up on rewrite rules at this point in history and what if they went further?" * Oh yeah — Cellpond [https://cellpond.cool/] is cool. Here's a video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU] showing you how it works. And here's a video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jX84iTXKg8] studying how that video works. And here's a secret third thing [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlsDbXSZ2ko]that bends into a half-dimension. * Here's Repenning's "rule-bending" paper: Bending the Rules: Steps Toward Semantically Enriched Graphical Rewrite Rules [https://home.cs.colorado.edu/~ralex/papers/PDF/VL95-RuleBending.pdf] * I don't need to link to SimCity [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity], right? You all know SimCity? Will Wright [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Wright_(game_designer)] is, arguably, the #1 name in simulation games. Well, you might not have caught the fantastic article Model Metropolis [https://logicmag.io/play/model-metropolis/] that unpacks the (inadvertently?) libertarian ideology embodied within the design of its systems. I'd also be remiss not to link to Polygon's video [https://www.polygon.com/videos/2021/4/1/22352583/simcity-hidden-politics-ideology-urban-dynamics] (and the corresponding write-up), which lend a little more colour to the history. * Couldn't find a good link to Blox Pascal, which appears in the paper Towards "Second Generation" Interactive, Graphical Programming Environments by Ephraim P. Glinert [https://www.cs.rpi.edu/~glinert/vita-pubs.html], which I also couldn't find a good link to. * Projectional / Structural Editor [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_editor]. Here's a good one [https://hazel.org/]. * Baba is You [https://www.patreon.com/posts/baba-is-you-104986179] * Vernacular Programmers [https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/069] * Filling Typed Holes with Live GUIs [https://hazel.org/papers/livelits-paper.pdf] is, AFAIK, the most current canonical reference for livelits. * I'm not linking to Minecraft. But I will link to the Repeater [https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Redstone_Repeater] * 32 Checkboxes [https://www.patreon.com/posts/32-checkboxes-103278355] * Wiremod [https://wiremod.com/] is a… you know what, just watch this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wEkNT2McKo]. * Chomsky Hierarchy [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chomsky_hierarchy] * The Witness [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(song)] * Ivan wrote a colorful Mastodon thread [https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion/112578884737169457] surveying the history of the Connection Machine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connection_Machine]. * Harder Drive [http://tom7.org/harder/] is a must-watch video by the inimitable Tom7 [http://tom7.org/]. * Also couldn't find a good link for TORTIS. :/ * Programming by Example (PbE) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_by_example] * Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo] * Alex Warth [https://alexwarth.github.io/], one of the most lovely humans Ivan knows, is a real champion of "this, because that". * Ivan's magnetic field simulations [https://ivanish.ca/magnetic-fields/] — Magnets! How do they work? [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/miracles-fucking-magnets-how-do-they-work] * Amit Patel's Red Blob Games [https://www.redblobgames.com/], fantastic (fantastic!) explorable explanations that help you study various algorithms and techniques used in game development. * Collaborative diffusion [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_diffusion] — "This article has multiple issues." * Shaun Lebron [https://shaunlebron.github.io/], who you might know as the creator of Parinfer [https://shaunlebron.github.io/parinfer/], made a game that interactively teaches you how the ghost AI works in Pac-Man [http://shaunlebron.github.io/gh4st/]. It's fun! * Maxwell's Equations [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_equations] — specifically Gauss's law [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_equations#Gauss's_law], which states that magnetic fields are solenoidal [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solenoidal_vector_field], meaning they have zero divergence at all points. * University of Colorado Boulder has a collection of simulations called PhET [https://phet.colorado.edu/]. They're… mid, at least when compared to building your own simulation. For instance. [https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/faradays-law/latest/faradays-law_all.html] Music featured in this episode: * snot bubbles [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSJeHDlhYls] ! Send us email [admin@futureofcoding.org?subject=Email%20from%20a%20listener], share your ideas in the Slack [https://futureofcoding.org/community], and catch us at these normal places: * Ivan: Mastodon [https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion] • Website [https://ivanish.ca/] * Jimmy: Mastodon [https://hachyderm.io/@jimmyhmiller] • Website [https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/] * Lu: Login [http://todepond.com/lab/login] • Website [https://www.todepond.com/] See you in the future! https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/073 [https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/073] Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding [https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.