June Reading Group this Friday – “Simulations and Understanding”
Hi everyone,
We’re excited to bring back the Dynamic Abstractions Reading Group for our June session!
🔍 Topic: Simulations and Understanding
🎙 Speaker: Andy Matuschak
🗓 Date: This Friday, June 27
🕒 Time: 12 pm EST (9 am PST)
📍 Zoom Link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/87890626814
👤 Bio
Andy is an applied researcher, focused on creating user interfaces that expand what people can think and do. His current focus is an augmented book which actively helps people understand, remember, and use what they read.
He believes personal computers can enable transformative tools for thought: environments that radically transform what people can think and do, so much so that we expand the set of thoughts it’s possible to think. He wants to produce alien cognitive and creative powers—as wondrous and magical to us today as a modern visual effects artist might seem to a cave painter.
🗒️ Note
A key dream for computing pioneers like Alan Kay and Seymour Papert was that we'd replace inert textual or symbolic explanations with real-time interactive simulations. As a result, people would understand complex topics much more easily. How has this dream fared? We'll examine that broad question in general, and by way of one of the most elaborate examplars, Earth Primer by Chaim Gingold (contributor to Will Wright's Spore, author of Building SimCity, and member of Bret Victor's lab at HARC). We'll also discuss the debate in cognitive psychology about the role of these abstractions in understanding.
📚 Readings
– Earth Primer (focus on "Interior" and "Surface" chapters)
– Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work
🗓️ Add to Calendar
– Google Calendar
– iCal (See attached)
Looking forward to a fun discussion!
Best,
Sangho
(on behalf of the Dynamic Abstractions Reading Group)
🔗 Links
– Dynamic Abstractions Homepage
– Reading Group Page
– Join Discord