Keynote: How do We Make the Invisible Visible? How do We Make the Unthinkable Thinkable?

The computer is a dynamic medium for creative thought, a concept famously articulated by Alan Kay. The author has collaborated with Alan Kay for over 25 years, and his work is deeply influenced by his and early computing pioneers' vision. In this talk, the author will demonstrate both past and present work, much of which is deeply rooted in principles such as collaboration, live programmability, interactivity, and visualization. The projects presented will include: • Parks PDA: An early electronic theme park guide done at Disney Imagineering R&D. • Squeak Etoys: An end-user authoring tool with block based programming. • Shadama: An interactive particle programming system with dynamic code translation to GLSL and GPU code. • Croquet Greenlight and Croquet Microverse: Real-time collaboration systems in 2D and 3D with live programming capability. • Local AI UI framework: An interactively programmable UI system that integrates AI agents. The author will provide historical context, drawing on the work of visionaries such as Licklider, Engelbart, and Kay, and will explain how these foundational ideas are being revitalized in his work. The computer enables users to create vastly different artifacts, which may be complex or built on novel ideas. To understand such artifacts, we can harness the computer's power to generate explanations that convey these ideas to other users. Besides the “medium” idea, the topic of software visualization has high relevancy to the philosopher Arthur Koestler's domains of creation. Koestler highlighted the human creation falls in one of three domains: humor, scientific and artistic. Software visualization brings scientific (“AHA”) and artistic (“AHH”) reactions, and often an effective visualization often evokes the “HA-HA” reaction. The author will discuss this aspect in the talk. The talk will conclude with a discussion on future directions. Humanity faces large and difficult problems, and solving them requires us to work together and think together more effectively.