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Hackers, magicians and the problem of understanding
- 1. Leila Johnston Copywriter at Made by Many Creator of book + interactive iPhone app Enemy of Chaos Editor of Hackers! quarterly Write about hacking for WIRED UK
- 2. Interfaces of possibility Hackers, magicians and the problem of understanding
- 4. The 9 ways in which you may astonish me
- 5. The 9 ways in which you may astonish me Production
- 6. The 9 ways in which you may astonish me Production Vanish
- 7. The 9 ways in which you may astonish me Production Vanish Transformation (vanish + production)
- 8. The 9 ways in which you may astonish me Production Vanish Transformation (vanish + production) Restoration
- 9. The 9 ways in which you may astonish me Production Vanish Transformation (vanish + production) Restoration Teleportation
- 10. The 9 ways in which you may astonish me Production Vanish Transformation (vanish + production) Restoration Teleportation Escape
- 11. The 9 ways in which you may astonish me Production Vanish Transformation (vanish + production) Restoration Teleportation Escape Levitation
- 12. The 9 ways in which you may astonish me Production Vanish Transformation (vanish + production) Restoration Teleportation Escape Levitation Penetration
- 13. The 9 ways in which you may astonish me Production Vanish Transformation (vanish + production) Restoration Teleportation Escape Levitation Penetration Prediction
- 14. The 9 ways in which you may astonish me Production Vanish Transformation (vanish + production) Restoration Teleportation Escape Levitation Penetration Prediction
- 15. Impossibility inversely correlates with interestingness Impossibleness Interest level
- 16. Impossibility inversely correlates with interestingness Impossibleness ‘Find the lady’ Interest level
- 17. Impossibility inversely correlates with interestingness Survive for 2 months without water in a glass box over the Thames Impossibleness ‘Find the lady’ Interest level
- 18. Magic’s restraint helps to keep the puzzle alive It’s got rules about how we can interact with it, a bit like a game. The most intriguing magic surrounds itself with a buffer of possibilities. The fun is in the guessing and mystery. When something is patently impossible we lose interest.
- 19. The joy of magic is not about the impossible ...which in itself, is a bit boring. It doesn’t stimulate the imagination. Impossibility is a dead end.
- 21. Which one’s more
- 22. Which one’s more
- 23. Which one’s more
- 24. Which one’s more
- 26. Which one’s more interesting? With interfaces, education and accessibility are at odds with each other.
- 27. Featureless interfaces are magic mirrors. They show what you’d like to think is going on. They’re Doctor Who’s psychic paper. What you see isn’t what you get...
- 28. Featureless interfaces are magic mirrors. They show what you’d like to think is going on. They’re Doctor Who’s psychic paper. What you see isn’t what you get... Devices have stopped teaching us about their workings. They’ve gone quiet. Is that slightly sinister?
- 29. Even when you feel you’ve got to the bottom of it, you haven’t. There’s always further to go into the machine. There’s always more to not understand. Delving into the invisible depths just turns up more abstractions.
- 31. Machines used to let you talk to them in their language. Now they talk to you in your language.
- 32. Machines used to let you talk to them in their language. Now they talk to you in your language. But they’re still just a brain in a jar.
- 33. Machines used to let you talk to them in their language. Now they talk to you in your language. But they’re still just a brain in a jar. Interfaces intercept things you can’t understand. Because you can’t handle the truth.
- 35. I want to talk to machines Show me how the trick works
- 36. What’s unlikely? Magicians Hackers What’s possible? Hackers and magicians both work with the possible-but-unlikely, in practical ways • Making • Subverting • Inventing • Asking: what’s possible, but seems like it shouldn’t be? • What’s the expected thing to do with this equipment? What’s unlikely?
- 37. The hacker impulse is to undo extreme mystification... Open Source, sharing code Hack Days Retrocoding & retro-gaming Breaking, playing and understanding Authenticity Keeping track of every step & piece of work
- 38. But seeing behind the curtain is not the same as understanding “Geeks like open source, but even when I’m shown how something’s done, I can’t always do it myself” – Duncan Gough, creative technologist
- 39. Hackers understand enough to want to understand more Hackers interrupt the machine-user relationship of designed interfaces. Magicians maintain interest through moderated impossibility. Interfaces, like magicians, make you feel like you understand. But seeing everything won’t help you understand, either. When magic and technology are intriguing it’s because they’re tantalisingly out of reach.
- 40. “Any sufficiently advanced hobby is indistinguishable from a job” Leila Johnston @Finalbullet
Editor's Notes
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- Magic is weird. Magic isn’t even what magic seems. It is regulated amazement. Viewers are prepared be astonished by magic only within quite limited parameters.\n
- The closer these get to the genuinely impossible, the less exciting they are. Production is interesting because of the technical detail; levitation is so patently unlikely it’s actually a bit embarrassing to watch.\n
- The closer these get to the genuinely impossible, the less exciting they are. Production is interesting because of the technical detail; levitation is so patently unlikely it’s actually a bit embarrassing to watch.\n
- The closer these get to the genuinely impossible, the less exciting they are. Production is interesting because of the technical detail; levitation is so patently unlikely it’s actually a bit embarrassing to watch.\n
- The closer these get to the genuinely impossible, the less exciting they are. Production is interesting because of the technical detail; levitation is so patently unlikely it’s actually a bit embarrassing to watch.\n
- The closer these get to the genuinely impossible, the less exciting they are. Production is interesting because of the technical detail; levitation is so patently unlikely it’s actually a bit embarrassing to watch.\n
- The closer these get to the genuinely impossible, the less exciting they are. Production is interesting because of the technical detail; levitation is so patently unlikely it’s actually a bit embarrassing to watch.\n
- The closer these get to the genuinely impossible, the less exciting they are. Production is interesting because of the technical detail; levitation is so patently unlikely it’s actually a bit embarrassing to watch.\n
- The closer these get to the genuinely impossible, the less exciting they are. Production is interesting because of the technical detail; levitation is so patently unlikely it’s actually a bit embarrassing to watch.\n
- The closer these get to the genuinely impossible, the less exciting they are. Production is interesting because of the technical detail; levitation is so patently unlikely it’s actually a bit embarrassing to watch.\n
- The closer these get to the genuinely impossible, the less exciting they are. Production is interesting because of the technical detail; levitation is so patently unlikely it’s actually a bit embarrassing to watch.\n
- After a point, we start to feel cheated. Magic can’t be too impossible, there needs to be room for something to admire. The purely, truly impossible is, by definition, difficult to be impressed by. It’s a logical nothing. It’s as boring as the glaringly obvious.\n
- After a point, we start to feel cheated. Magic can’t be too impossible, there needs to be room for something to admire. The purely, truly impossible is, by definition, difficult to be impressed by. It’s a logical nothing. It’s as boring as the glaringly obvious.\n
- Magic’s limited vocabulary means we relate to it as a game. When the rules are thrown away, it gets less enjoyable. We are prepared to be astonished, so long as it’s in the right sort of way, and we like the magicians to include a buffer of possibilities in there, to keep the puzzling alive; a way we can at least try to work out what’s going on. \n
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- The sketches of the hands drawing, or the robot building itself? \n
- Doctor Who’s sonic screwdriver...\n...or a real electromagnetic pulse bomb?\n
- Harrison Ford sellotaping a Scanner to an ATM display in Firewall...\n\n...or Marcus Kuhn’s reconstruction of a monitor using fragments of light emissions as picked up from a wall near the screen?\n
- A Kinect hack that allows you to generate lightning flashes from tesla coils when you throw you arms in the air...\n\n...or David Blaine’s astonishing feats of telepathy?\n
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- Julian Skidmore says Fignition is as educational to kids today as the BBC Micro. But it runs Forth, a stack-based programming language from 1983. And the keyboard is 8 switches - you type in chords. “I wanted it to be the size of a mobile phone.” It is so difficult, it teaches you HOW TO USE IT.\nThe iPhone is all interface, functions replaced by pictures of what will happen. When it comes to interfaces, education and accessibility can be at odds with each other.\n
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- The world we perceive is already a heavily moderated illusion.\n\n
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- “Spectaculator” Spectrum emulator for iPhone. \nMinitel machine as a remote control for WinAmp, instructions on hack-a-dayBeige have published extensive instructions on how to hack a Mario cartridge to remove the game, leaving only the scrolling clouds\n
- It’s not enough to just see how it works. Seeing things we can’t do is always amazing, even when we understand it intellectually or in principle.\n
- It’s all about understanding just the right amount to be interested enough to learn more.\n
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