The past week or so I've been working on a talk proposal for Strange Loop 2023. I've never written, proposed, or given a conference talk before, so it really put me out of my comfort zone. I'm not very confident that where I ended up will get selected, but I'm glad I tried since it also helped me start to understand how important it is that I learn to better communicate the point of this project. This is what I ended up submitting:

The Principles and Architecture of Coalescent Computing

The web has eaten the personal computer. What web-based “platform computing” has given us in sharing capabilities, cloud storage, and glossy user interfaces, it has taken from us in data ownership, privacy, and portability. To solve the looming social and ecological issues of the 21st century, we’ll need more resilient personal computing systems that can adapt to local conditions and emergent needs, without relying on platforms.

In this talk, we’ll discuss how the principles of “local-first software” and “agent-centric computing” both aim to reverse the trend of platform enclosure while holding on to their most important benefits. We’ll then define a new personal computing paradigm at the intersection of those principles, called “coalescent computing”. Finally, we’ll walk through a high-level architectural proposal for actually building a coalescent computer, look at some examples of work that has already been done, and explore some of the emergent consequences of its design.