Brian Holtz, BSc, MSc
Brian Holtz, BSc, MSc is a developer of Internet software and a
future-oriented
Libertarian theorist and activist. He received a B.S. in Computer
Science from the
University of Southern Mississippi Honors College
(1987), and
an M.S. in Artificial Intelligence from the
University of Michigan
(1990). His
research focused on genetic algorithms, artificial life, and the
philosophical foundations of AI. Since 1990 he has been a developer of
Internet software, first at
Sun Microsystems and currently at
Yahoo. At
Sun he worked on an Internet-based open hypertext system that preceded
the Worldwide Web, and published the book
Tooltalk and Open Protocols: Inter-Application Communication
describing his work on a persistent-object messaging system that
preceded OMG’s CORBA standard.
In 1992 he accurately
predicted several developments in
digital media, such as Napster-like file-sharing, the government’s
DMCA-style response to such sharing, and the decline of TV commercials
due to time-shifting technology like PVRs.
In 1993 he wrote a tty-based artificial life simulator named Vita.
In Vita,
simulated creatures compete, reproduce, and evolve while their behavior
is controlled by mutating programs expressed in a Turing-complete
programming language called VitaL.
In 2000 he issued a
speculative timeline of
the future as part of a
comprehensive survey
of humanity’s
future, analyzing impossible and improbable advances, sociological and
technological developments, environmental
challenges and possible
catastrophes. This survey is itself a part of
Human Knowledge:
Foundations and Limits, a systematic
hypertext overview of what humanity “does and does not know, and can and
cannot know”.
Brian is a member of the national and California Libertarian Party
platform committees, and is the two-time
Libertarian candidate for Congress in CA14 (Silicon Valley). He
advocates the application of rigorous economic science to temper the
enthusiasms of both Libertarians and futurists.
He is the author of the blog
Knowing Humans.
