Bits with Soul | Hacker News Reader

Bits with Soul

darwin.cam.ac.uk

38 pointsmrkeen7 comments

"When people think of codes, coding, and computers, they often think of socially challenged nerds like me, writing “code” (whatever that might be) in a darkened basement, all soulless ones and zeros and glowing screens. But in fact computer science (the study of information, computation, and communication) gives us an enormously rich new lens through which to look at and explore the world. By encoding everything in the same, digital bits, we can mechanise the analysis and transformation of that information; we can explore it in ways that are simply inaccessible to manual techniques; we can engage our creativity to write programs whose complexity rivals the most sophisticated artefacts that human beings have produced—and yet fit on a USB drive; we can even learn from data in ways that have made “ChatGPT” into a verb practically overnight.

Given how closely digital technology is interwoven in our lives, having a visceral sense of how this stuff works, what it can do well, and how it can fail, is essential for us to survive and thrive, and should be part of every child’s education.

In my talk I will share some of the joy, beauty, and creativity of computer science. This is serious, because it impinges on our daily lives. But it is also rich, beautiful, and fun."

(Pasted here because it's not obvious where this one's going from the landing page).

Direct YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2QWxT9a8HU

You perhaps missed the key point - this was Simon Peyton Jones speaking.

I was fortunate enough to be in the audience; while the talk was pitched at a lay audience, Simon is the type of speaker who can make anything engaging and enjoyable to listen to regardless of whether you know the material he's presenting or have not the first idea.

I've watched it now, and while I've no doubt he's a good science communicator, and the topic and examples are solid, I think he falls between two stools here. I think he goes too fast for a neophyte, and the topic is too basic for someone with experience.

If you watch the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (which I think are pitched at the same level) you'll see they generally slow things down a bit.

Would have benefitted from fewer examples, with more time spent on each.

I attend the Christmas Lectures too - I'm literally on my way home from the RI as I type :) They used to go a lot deeper and narrower, exploring a topic (eg the Standard Model or chirality) over a set of 5 hour long lectures. The target audience was scientifically aware teenage children, but they're now about engaging children for whom science might not have otherwise been an interesting topic.

My point about Simon was that he is engaging - I tried to allude to the fact that an expert wouldn't learn anything. I don't know how it comes across as a video but as a live performer he draws you in.

Reducing the nature to "the same digital bits", seeing it as a mechanism, is precisely the soulless nature of tech that the normies are worried about, and it's probably why the nerds who are too immersed in tech are so socially awkward.

There's nothing inherently soulless about that.

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