2026-04-25 –, Barn
With twenty some-odd bits of state and several hundred instructions, Modern Western Square Dancing is a pipelined architecture that executes on groups of humans and provides challenging programming puzzles, in a context that brings people together and builds real-life in-person bonds.
From its origins in Black slave culture in the early United States, to something inflicted on us in grade school, square dancing as it is performed around the world has been described as "uniquely American". We'll talk about lessons from "group theory performed as a team sport, set to music", or "dancing for math nerds", from the propaganda of Henry Ford, to post WWII American expansion, to how gay culture has struggled with assimilating straight dancers. And maybe offer some lessons we can take into our own communities.
Dan learned to program in machine language on a 6502 with 1K of RAM. He's been a professional whitewater guide, started an ISP in the 1993-1994 era, has credits in blockbuster films courtesy of a stint at Pixar in the '90s, and has worked on a number of products that have touched your life.
He currently lives in Petaluma, where he has a day job programming, and alternates between making sawdust in his woodworking shop and calling square dances in the off hours.