Watch Quinn’s talk: “Postmodern Systems” – from Aaron Swartz Day 2002 on November 13, 2022:
At the turn of the century, Gerald Sussman remarked that “computer science is in deep trouble. Structured design is a failure.”
Since then, our systems have only become more complex as we’ve struggled to cater to the needs of more types of people. Perhaps it’s time for us to take a page from Sussman’s book, and consider a post-structuralist interpretation of computer programs?
Doing so means reconceptualizing of software to eschew objective and totalizing experiences in favor of the intersubjective perspectives of our users: a goal that requires rethinking how we build interconnected software entirely.
Bio:
Quinn is an applied researcher at Fission, where she spends her time experimenting with new ways of building and composing systems together.
Lately, that’s meant building a decentralized edge database for supporting end-to-end encrypted applications over IPFS.
In her free time, she watches way too much film, and occupies her nights with archaeological dives into dead and forgotten programming languages.