Alan Kay Discusses Claude Shannon's Impact on Communication During Live Stream

Alan Kay performed an audio feedback loop about Claude Shannon during a live online event celebrating Kristen Nygaard's 100th birthday. Initially scheduled to discuss how Simula influenced his thoughts on objects, Kay encountered a delay in his audio due to the live stream setup, which caused his voice to echo back to him with a 21-second delay. He remarked, "Shannon gave us a way of dealing with noisy channels" and expressed amazement at the situation. Kay humorously noted that the audio was being "rerouted to Mars and back," highlighting the significant distance involved in the delay. This experience echoed Alvin Lucier's 1969 piece "I Am Sitting in a Room," which involves re-recording one's voice until only the room's resonance remains. Kay's performance revealed the complexities of network communication, including delays and audio dropouts. He suggested that the solution to the audio issue was to turn off the audio on Zoom at his end. Additional links provided include a Wikipedia page on Lucier's work and a YouTube video of the performance.