No May Session | June 27 Reading Group on Simulations and Understanding
Hi everyone,
Just a quick note to check in and share what's coming up!
May Reading Group. We’ll be skipping this month’s session and resuming in June.
Next Session – June Reading Group
📅 Friday, June 27
🕘 9 AM PST / 12 PM EST
💬 Topic: Simulations and Understanding
🎙️ Speaker: Andy Matuschak
Overview:
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.
Suggested Readings:
“Earth Primer“ by Chaim Gingold – (focus on "Interior" and "Surface" chapters)
“Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work” (Kirschner et al., 2006)
About the Speaker:
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.
We’ll send out reminders and a Zoom link as we get closer to the date. Looking forward to seeing many of you there!
Best,
Sangho
on behalf of the Dynamic Abstractions Working Group
🌐 Visit http://dynamicabstractions.github.io for more info and past sessions.