The Humane Representation of Thought

Bret Victor's landmark keynote argues that our current modes of knowledge work—staring at screens, typing on keyboards—represent a fundamental impoverishment of human cognitive capabilities. He presents a vision for a 'dynamic medium' that would engage our full range of abilities: tactile, spatial, kinesthetic, visual, and auditory. This talk maps a path toward technology that liberates rather than constrains human thought.

6 sections · 21 lessons

Course outline

Crisis of Media

  1. Power of Representation
  2. Media Specialization Cost
  3. The Cage Metaphor
  4. Computer Limitations
  5. Crisis of Media

Human Capabilities

  1. Modes of Understanding
  2. Intelligence Frameworks
  3. Atrophied Capabilities
  4. Embodied Cognition
  5. Human Capabilities

Dynamic Medium

  1. Computational Responsiveness
  2. Connected Physicality
  3. Dynamic Matter Vision
  4. Dynamic Medium

Communication Reimagined

  1. Dynamic Conversation
  2. Spatial Presentation
  3. Context-Sensitive Reading
  4. Spatial Libraries
  5. Direct Authoring
  6. Communication Reimagined

Thinking Layer

  1. External Thinking Tools
  2. Immersive Thought
  3. Body-Scale Work
  4. Thinking Layer

Ethics of Design

  1. Humane by Design
  2. Fighting Default Trajectory
  3. Ethics of Design

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