Medieval Art, Collective Intelligence, and Language Abuse

Presented at Monktoberfest 2013

Transcript

1. medieval art, collective intelligence, and language abuse Monktoberfest 2013 @tylerhannan Basho Technologies
2. today, we will discuss,
3. medieval art,
4. collective intelligence,
5. cloud computing,
6. literature,
7. and language abuse.
8. this is -- in actuality --
9. a cloud computing
10. free
11. presentation.
12. you may buy me a beer, in thanks, later.
13. let’s start
14. at the very beginning.
15. which is,
16. in fact,
17. a very good place
18. to start.
19. h"p://dra)house.com/movies/the_sound_of_music_mothers_day_brunch_feast/  
21. a distributed systems company
22. a distributed systems company
23. with a
24. distributed team.
25. as a member of this distributed team,
26. i’ve learned
27. many things.
28. but, one
29. in particular:
30. software is all about humans.
31. .::language abuse::.
32. the year was 1873.
33. a young college student
34. was appointed as
35. the assistant librarian at
36. Amherst College.
37. this man
38. h"p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvil_Dewey  
39. Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey
40. became frustrated with
41. categorization inside the library.
42. in an attempt to
43. increase the utility
44. of the library,
45. without increasing expenditure,
46. he created
47. a method of classification.
48. the Dewey Decimal System.
49. the system was devised
50. solely for
51. cataloguing
52. and indexing
53. purposes.
54. but, he found it
55. to be equally valuable
56. for arranging books on shelves.
57. interestingly,
58. or perhaps frighteningly,
59. he also became enamoured
60. with the concept of
61. “Simplr Spellin”,
62. or
63. english language spelling reform.
64. which is responsible for the spelling of
65. catalog
66. instead of
67. catalogue.
68. this also prompted
69. a desire to change his name to
70. melvil dui.
71. and, most disturbingly,
72. responsible for menus
73. in the local area, reading:
74. hadok, poted beef with noodls
75. parsli or masht potato,
76. butr, steamed rys, letis,
77. and ys cream.
78. a hierarchical system
79. of categorization that
80. led to a
81. measure of absurdity.
82. .::collective intelligence::.
83. 1906 London
84. h"p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton  
85. Francis Galton
86. visited a livestock fair.
87. where a contest
88. would demonstrate
89. collective intelligence.
90. an ox was on display
91. and villagers,
92. farmers,
93. ranchers,
94. doctors,
95. men,
96. women,
97. children,
98. professionals,
99. labourers,
100. basically... all townspeople...
101. were invited to guess the weight
102. after slaughter.
103. 787 guesses.
104. none right.
105. however, the mean of the guesses, was
106. 1,197 pounds.
107. actual weight...
108. weight for it... (boo. hiss.)
109. 1,198 pounds.
110. “The results seems more creditable to the trustworthiness of a democratic judgement...”
111. with that said,
112. this came from a man
113. earlier steeped in the study of
114. anthropometry.
115. “The systematic quantitative representation of the human body for use in classification and comparison.”
116. in which the sum of his research
117. indicated that
118. people are idiots
119. only the “select, well bred few” should control society.
120. collective intelligence
121. if you are familiar
122. with the field of AI
123. you may know of the
124. “collective intelligence quotient”.
125. measuring the
126. marginal extra intelligence
127. added by each new
128. individual that participates
129. in the collective.
130. a notional “metric”
131. to ensure
132. a system
133. does not succumb to
134. “group think”.
135. language abuse
136. a phenomenon
137. that also occurs
138. in mathematics.
139. “We have made a particular effort to always use rigorously correct language, without sacrificing simplicity. As far as possible, we have drawn attention in the text to abuses of language without which any mathematical text runs the risk of pedantry, not to say unreadability. - Nicolas Bourbaki (1988)
140. i am, often,
141. asked how
142. github issues,
143. hipchat,
144. campfire,
145. irc,
146. and a myriad
147. of other tools
148. enable a
149. distributed team
150. to function.
151. enable open source communities
152. to leverage the
153. collective intelligence
154. of a community of engineers.
155. “Tyler, what is your perspective on communication tools and methodologies in distributed teams?”
156. my perspective?
157. well…you asked.
158. but first,
159. a brief foray into
160. .::literature::.
161. charles lutwidge dodson
162. anyone know him?
163. perhaps,
164. best known under a
165. pseudonym.
166. wrote a tale.
167. a tale of
168. fantasy…
169. with allusions to his friends.
170. a tale that
171. plays with logic;
172. and that I have
173. loved
174. since a young age.
175. groomed as an
176. anglican priest,
177. he refused to take
178. his priestly orders.
179. a migraneur,
180. who suffered from seizures,
181. spoke with a stammer,
182. and was accused of
183. paedophilia.
184. h"p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll  
185. lewis carrol
186. author of
187. h"p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_wonderland  
188. alice in wonderland
189. is an apt description
190. of most
191. technologists.
192. h"p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_wonderland  
193. ‘Cheshire Puss,’ [Alice] began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. ‘Come, it’s pleased so far,’ thought Alice, and she went on. ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
194. ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
195. ‘I don't much care where --’ said Alice.
196. ‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.
197. ‘-- so long as I get SOMEWHERE,’ Alice added as an explanation.
198. ‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’
199. ‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.
200. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’
201. “then, it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
202. “we are all mad here…”
204. a science fiction novella
205. was published to
206. lambast
207. the social hierarchy
208. of victorian culture.
209. h"p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland  
210. according to Isaac Asimov
211. “the best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions”
212. it is, in essence,
213. an imaging of a
214. 2 dimensional square
215. experiencing life
216. in a 1 dimensional world
217. and interacting with a
218. 3 dimensional being.
219. Sphere: “But now prepare to receive proof positive of the truth of my assertions. <snip> You can at least see that, as I rise in Space, so my sections become smaller.
220. See now, I will rise; and the effect upon your eye will be that my Circle will become smaller and smaller till it dwindles to a point and finally vanishes.”
221. h"p://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flatland_sphere.JPEG  
222. Square: “There was no “rising” that I could see; but he diminished and finally vanished. I winked once or twice to make sure that I was not dreaming. But it was no dream.”
223. “…it was no dream.”
224. .::medieval art::.
225. a, heavily religious,
226. form of art
227. focused on
228. groups of symbols
229. rather than
230. a coherent picture.
231. the difference between
232. h"p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PerspecHve_(graphical)  
233. -and-
234. h"p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PerspecHve_(graphical)  
235. perspective.
236. perspective:
237. “an approximate representation, on a flat surface (such as paper), of an image as it is perceived by the eye.”
238. perspective
239. was, likely,
240. first used in the
241. 5th century b.c.
242. ancient greece
243. where two philosophers worked
244. on geometric theories of
245. perspective
246. for use on stage panels.
247. but, the modern resurgence came in
248. 1415.
249. h"p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunelleschi  
250. filippo brunelleschi
251. demonstrated the methods of
252. perspective
253. by painting the outlines
254. of
255. various buildings around
256. florence
257. onto a mirror.
258. in essence,
259. copying a reflection of
260. real life
261. and realizing it was, in fact,
262. beautiful.
263. perspective.
264. Thus (through perspective) every sort of confusion is revealed within us; and this is that weakness of the human mind on which the art of conjuring and of deceiving by light and shadow and other ingenious devices imposes, having an effect upon us like magic...
265. And the arts of measuring and numbering and weighing come to the rescue of the human understanding- there is the beauty of them --and the apparent greater or less, or more or heavier, no longer have the mastery over us, but give way before calculation and measure and weight?"
266. - plato
267. perspective.
268. the essence of
269. perspective is
270. to show things
271. as they appear.
272. not
273. as they are.
274. so?
275. an example…
276. these
277. h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/doug88888/  
278. creep me out
279. they are going to eat me evil, evil, evil, evil, evil.
280. arguably, i have a flawed
281. perspective.
282. “Tyler, what is your perspective on communication tools and methodologies in distributed teams?”
283. what is the
284. reality
285. about communication in technology?
286. i am asked about
287. tools
288. for communication.
289. my perspective…
290. perhaps flawed
291. my view of our present reality…
292. is that i should, instead,
293. be asked about
294. people.
295. software is all about humans.
296. we, as an industry, may
297. in our attempt to
298. streamline communication
299. across disparate geography
300. end up with
301. “Simplr Spellin”.
302. a series of in-jokes,
303. memes,
305. and catch phrases
306. “GET ON THIS LEVEL”
307. that serve, we think,
308. to build community.
309. but…perhaps…
310. exclude participation.
311. because…
312. software is all about humans.
313. my perspective
314. is that we are
315. NOT
316. alice stumbling about wonderland.
317. is that we are
318. NOT
319. a 2 dimensional being struggling to understand reality.
320. my perspective
321. is that the perceived ethos of technology
322. can change
323. to include.
324. to invite.
325. to enable broad participation.
326. how?
327. that’s another talk entirely.
328. but....
329. the process starts
330. with a simple challenge
331. that our
332. perspective
333. may, no longer,
334. be a reflection
335. of reality.
336. our perspective
337. may be
338. flawed.
339. and we discover this
340. flawed perspective
341. only by listening.
342. because,
343. software is all about humans.
344. in my life
345. there are humans.
346. humans i work for,
347. humans i work with,
348. humans who work for me,
349. humans i raise
352. and these
353. two little humans
354. are the future
355. engineers…
356. should they so choose.
357. “Tyler, what is your perspective on communication tools and methodologies in distributed teams?”
358. it is not
359. about the tools.
360. it is
361. about the people.
362. and how
363. we
364. in this room
365. today
366. choose to interact.
367. choose to listen.
368. choose to broaden
369. our perspective.
370. after all…
371. software is all about humans.
372. slide #372
373. With  thanks,  and  apologies,to:   Lawrence  Lessig   Rolf  Skyberg     Wri3en  while  listening  to:   Explosions  In  The  Sky,  Take  Care  Take  Care  Take  Care   Bombazine  Black,  Here  Their  Dreams   Nathaniel  Rateliff,  Falling  Faster  Than  You  Can  Run     I  am:   Tyler  Hannan   @tylerhannan