Every now and then various corporations publish shorts about the future: “What will things be like with information technology after the 2012 presidential election in the Russian Federation?” The latest film is published by Microsoft.
Productivity Future Vision (2011)
A few weeks after watching it, I came across the musings of a certain Bret Victor on the substance of this film. Bret says that this vision is merely a timid attempt to take a small step away from what we already have now. He then explains in plain language why he thinks so and where interfaces ought to develop.
But today is not about interfaces. Bret Victor worked at Apple from 2007 to 2010 as an inventor of human-machine interfaces. I was interested in how he himself writes about his work. He researched experimental hardware platforms and information input technologies, developed new concepts, designed, prototyped, and showed developments at internal meetings.
Bret ends like this:
I made many, many things. These things, which I cared about deeply, for the most part did not become popular.
I would like to show you all these things; maybe they will inspire you. In the rectangle below I have placed all my inventions that I am allowed to show publicly:
**F. A. Q. **
— But this rectangle is empty! It’s an empty rectangle! — That is correct.
— All right then. I thought you’d made a mistake. — That is correct.
