Lisp is an exquisite medium for the communication of computational ideas. From our most accurate observations of physical reality up through chemistry, biology, and cognition, the universe seems to be computing itself; modeling and simulating these systems in machines has led to incredible technological wealth.

Deep principles and beautiful abstractions seem to drive these systems, but they have always been hard to discover; and we are floundering at the computational frontiers of intelligence, synthetic biology and control systems for our climate. The only way to push forward is to build powerful tools that can communicate and teach.

This talk will take a tour through SICMUtils, a Lisp system designed as a workshop for conducting serious work in mathematical physics and sharing those explorations in a deeply interactive, multiplayer way. The library’s growth parallels our human scientific history; hopefully tools like this will help us write the next chapter.

Bio: I’m a researcher at the Mentat Collective, and currently working on a series of interactive, multiplayer computational textbooks for exploring mathematical physics and other forms of modeled reality. I’ve lived past work-lives at (Google) X, Stripe, Twitter, founded Paddleguru and Racehub; I’m most well known in the software world as the author of Summingbird, Algebird, and SICMUtils, and as the maintainer of Cascalog. I have a secret identity as a mountain athlete and amateur aircraft mechanic, and live with wife Jenna and daughter Juno in Boulder, Colorado.

Sam is a researcher at the Mentat Collective, currently working on a series of interactive, multiplayer computational textbooks for exploring mathematical physics and other forms of modeled reality. He has worked as an engineer at (Google) X, Stripe, Twitter, and founded Paddleguru and Racehub. Sam is most well known in the software world as the author of Summingbird, Algebird, and SICMUtils, and as the maintainer of Cascalog. He has a secret identity as a mountain athlete and amateur aircraft mechanic, and lives with wife Jenna and daughter Juno in Boulder, Colorado.