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Beyond the Frame | What If Data Is a Bad Idea?

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Several years ago, esteemed computer scientist Alan Kay participated in an Ask Me Anything on Hacker News. Kay always sparks interesting conversation and I was happy to see Rich Hickey, a practitioner held in equally high regard, join the thread. The dialogue was kicked off by Kay’s provocative musing on the legitimacy of data; not just some data, but the idea of data itself. Kay has made a career out of challenging conventional wisdom. Perhaps this is best embodied by one of his most famous quotes, “A shift in perspective is worth 80 IQ points.”  Alan Kay by Jean Baptiste It was a bit like a physicist asking, “What if gravity is a bad idea?” Kay and Hickey largely talked past each other and never really got to engage the question. But I think it’s one worth exploring. Not only in the technical dimensions of data, but also in the inescapable political dimensions of its automation. Data is inherently objectifying. This property is an asset when describing inert phenomenon such as the

Software, Erweiterte Diagnose , Software, IBM DOS Version 1.10 What if “data” is a really bad idea? Several years ago, esteemed computer scientist Alan Kay participated in an Ask Me Anything on Hacker News. Kay always sparks interesting conversation and I was happy to see Rich Hickey, a practitioner held in equally high regard, join the thread. The dialogue was kicked off by Kay’s provocative musing on the legitimacy of data; not just some data, but the idea of data itself. Kay has made a career out of challenging conventional wisdom. Perhaps this is best embodied by one of his most famous quo

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