Reed's Ruminations: The Past, Present, and Future
Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience
Category: Web/Tech
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RENCI and the Digital Antique Shop
In 2004, I moved to North Carolina to found the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI). My goal was to bring a new approach to computationally mediated problem solving, one rooted in multidisciplinary teams and focused on important and vexing societal problems – health, environment, society, and economics. In a phrase, to be a catalyst for innovation.…
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Courtside at the Digital Revolution
During the past fifty years, I have been privileged to see the digital revolution courtside, as well as play the game myself. It’s a journey from physical media – punched cards, paper tape, and typewritten documents – to digital media, high-speed computing (megaflops, gigaflops, teraflops, and petaflops), high-speed broadband, powerful consumer devices, and globe-spanning AI…
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From Broadcast to Narrowcast: Finding Signal in the Noise
The explosion of tailored communications and personal preferences can trap any one of us in a self-reinforcing echo chamber.
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Contemplative Reflection and Instantaneous Communication
Few issues are so simple as to be reduced to a 140 character précis. Long-form oratory once defined public debate, and in the hands of a skilled and informed speaker, it still can.
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Network Neutrality: It’s Complicated
Internet access was once a luxury, but no longer. In a 21st century knowledge economy, high-speed Internet services are the roads, waterways and rail lines of trade and commerce.
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Through A Google Glass, Darkly
I have been wearing Google Glass intermittently as both a technical assessment of utility and as a social study in human dynamics and expectations.