Chad Davis's blog

Cruising at 34,000 feet back to DC on Southwest flight 891, I'm taking some time to reflect on my days at SXSW2012. If you've never experienced the conference, let me tell you that it's hard to make it through without feeling drained. And no, that's not from the drinking.

The topic of artificial intelligence was front and center at the 2012 South by Southwest Interactive Conference...the result, I suspect, of Apple launching Siri around the time the panels were selected. Amber Case, a self-styled "Cyborg Anthropologist" got us started off right with a keynote Sunday about the recent history of man's merge with machine.

Computation is mathematical poetry. That may not be self-evident, but when you hear Stephen Wolfram talk about it, there is little doubt. Wolfram arrived to a packed hall at the South by Southwest Interactive conference Sunday, and he came to preach the gospel of computation. It is, he told us, one of the biggest ideas in human history.

If you were not at South by Southwest for day #2 of the Interactive sessions, you missed researcher Danah Boyd's truly insightful and thought provoking talk on an issue of critical importance to 21st century society.

I think we all remember the relentless rain that set the film "Blade Runner." It was that type of dystopian gale that soaked Austin, TX yesterday as geeks, techies, designers and, yes, futurists arrived for South By Southwest 2012. One of those futurists, Brian David Johnson, works for Intel and he came to "South by" for a day to talk to us about how the chip manufacturer creates its vision for the future of technology. His message and approach were a welcome contrast to the weather outside.