Grady Booch

I aspire to be as gouda as Scott.

Moonset

Sunset

A few years ago, I did a thing with Anthony Daniels.

What I said then I still stand by today.

It is a mark of profound hubris to suggest that we are even close to understanding and then replicating the architectural decisions that might yield such beautiful artifacts

Sentience is an exquisite consequence of the laws of physics, and the embodied mind of organisms shaped by millions of years of evolution is the remarkable product of a billions upon billions of failed experiments and dead ends and strange loops.

While the mind is unquestionably not a computer, there is tantalizing evidence to suggest that the mind is computable, and as such, we are faced with the prospect of artifical sentience. We are intentionally, inevitably, and irreversibly co-evolving with computing.

Across the fullness of time, it is only in the past two or three generations that computers were no longer just human; now they have woven themselves into the interstitial spaces of civilization, serving to automate a multitude of activities.

Sentience is an exquisite yet rare consequence of the laws of physics.

Computing makes it possible to extend our bodies in two very powerful ways: expand our senses and our appendages far beyond their organic limitations and project our minds into digital worlds that transcend the laws of physics.

Evolution has shaped minds for the physical world and all of its complexity, ambiguity, contradiction, noise, and indifference to our presence. We are embodied creatures, in and of the world, and our continuing presence is a testament to the evolutionary value of sentience.

In a manner of speaking, computing brings to the artist new pigments, new brushes, and even entirely new canvases; it also calls us to consider the uniqueness of human of creativity.

The artifacts of art may take on every conceivable static and dynamic form that engages the senses: visual, auditory, tactile, and more.

Art is the tangible expression of the subjective experience of the artist, serving to connect with its observers in a manner that engenders an emotional, intellectual, or experiential response.

Computing is firmly grounded in science, but its beginnings were colored by faith, its present is a companion to the vast majority of humanity who hold some belief system, and its future is inexorably entangled with dreams of the possible.

Science is the pursuit of understanding through observation, experimentation, and theory-building while faith is an encounter with the ineffable; both seek to explain the cosmos, although in radically different ways.

... to the complex mechanisms of life itself, life that give witness to the elegant truths of reality. Computing touches every aspect of science - observation, experimentation, and the making of theories - thereby extending our reach whereby we can reason about the world.

Science is a way for us to understand the cosmos, from the vastness of space and time to the strange behavior of subatomic particles, across the forces that give rise to the exquisite dance between order and chaos, and even...

To those ends, computing is a mechanism whereby nations yield their power externally as well as internally, often acting as a force multiplier in the delicate balance between the needs of the many and the needs of the few.

The role of a nation is to preserve and defend its sovereignty, be good stewards of its resources, and attend to the needs of its citizens so that they might flourish.

A nation is a special kind of community, one defined by physical boundaries, a common history, a shared identity, and an evolving culture.

At scale, communities form cultures that transcend time. Computing facilitates our participation in an abundance of communities simultaneously, of which some transcend space, a few endure, and many are transient.

Individuals seek to see and be seen, hear and be heard, know and be known, love and to be loved. To that end, we bind ourselves to communities established by birth, proximity, interests, and values, so as to meet our innate needs for safety, companionship, intimacy, meaning, and identity.

As we slowly, inevitably, and irreversibly surrender to these devices of our own creation, we are compelled to examine what it means to be human and how we might preserve our privacy, extend our agency, celebrate our creativity, and maintain our dignity.

Our bodies may die, but the digital dietrius we create in our lifetime lives on.

Mythology is filled with stories of machines that served as companions, as helpmates, as servants, as gods. Now, we build them from sand and animate them with lightning.

At scale, some mechanism for accounting and accountability rises, and thus the need for money derives. Computing accelerates the velocity of money and in turn has woven itself into the fabric of all commerce.

When an individual, a community, or a nation offers a service or product that another needs or wants and cannot or does not want to make themselves, trade emerges, and in so doing contributes to the formation of complex economic, social, and political connections that in turn shapes cultures.

Amid the rise of the Cold War, computing became an instrument of war. Now, in our time, computing has become a theater of war. In the journey from Jaccard's loom to our present time, it is fair to say that the foundations of modern computing have been woven on a loom of sorrow.

Computing and warfare have evolved in concert, each profoundly influencing the other. During World War II, computing was a companion to war.