Libre Designers and the Software Apocalypse
So, is LGM all about libre tools that software developers make that
designers and artists use to make creative work … ? At previous LGMs
we’ve talked about open-source design feeding back into improving the
look, feel and usability of creative software. But what about the
tools used to write those tools? Can we link things back another step?
Coding environments have barely changed in decades. Yet the complexity
of software produced in them has risen exponentially. The disconnect
from cause to effect has become ever greater. All software has bugs,
most bugs involve software doing exactly what it was told to do.
Sometimes they eat your work, sometimes they kill people.
The title of this talk is partly “borrowed” from an article that
appeared in The Atlantic in 2017. But is it all hyperbole? This talk
was originally proposed for the cancelled LGM in 2020 - the landscape
may have evolved since then, such as in the growth of AI, but has it
improved? Let’s consider some of the issues. And ongoing experiments
in user interaction, liveness and design in various open-source tools
that are seeking to change coding for the better.
This talk may cover some of the ideas in play. But it certainly won’t
have the right answers. It probably hasn’t even found the right
questions. But just maybe it’s time to help save the world from code.