The Urbit community has grown at a rapid clip throughout 2021. There are so many exciting things going on that it's hard to convey them all, even with Developer Calls happening every two weeks. This event will function as a virtual "mini-conference" where we'll give a series of important and exciting announcements, including both formal and informal talks from many members of our community.
Here's a rundown of what we'll be discussing:
Introduction: State of the Network
12:00 PDT, Josh Lehman
Urbit is under heavy, active development by both Tlon and a wide range of contributors. Josh Lehman will discuss some of the most important areas of work being undertaken, provide a picture of where Tlon and community efforts are going in the future, and even has a few exciting announcements to make.
Taisho, Urbit's Port City
~12:20 PDT, Hunter Miller
Piloting an Urbit ship requires expertise that many lack. To achieve the rich and prosperous ecosystem we've all envisioned requires making that journey easier. In this talk, Hunter Miller introduces a new way for users to join the network with minimal effort.
Keynote: The Revenge of Teleology
~13:00 PDT, Justin Murphy
Teleology—or inquiry into ultimate ends—has been out of fashion since the seventeenth century, when Francis Bacon said that, “like a virgin consecrated to God,” it “produces nothing.” I argue that the digital revolution is inverting Bacon’s claim. Baconian instrumentalism is now suffering from diminishing returns—it is what the youth today call a Boomer Ideology. Rather, the greatest gains are going to individuals and communities with teleological attitudes. This talk will observe some examples and present a model consistent with the observations. Bitcoin inquires after the telos of money, the most winning independent “content creators” inquire after the telos of media, and Urbit inquires after the telos of personal computing.
Lightning Talks
14:00 PDT, you?
After the scheduled talks we'll break out into a series of 30 minute talks led by community members. There will be up to three talks given in parallel at each of 14:00 PDT, 14:30 PDT and 15:00 PDT (so nine talks total).
If you'd like to give a talk, please use this form to sign up↗. You can see the full list of proposed talks here↗, and if you'd like to voice your support for any of these specifically, cast a vote using this form↗.