The second half was Dr. Alvy Ray Smith, one of the pioneers of computer animation and co-founder of Pixar. Over the course of about an hour, Alvy recounted story after story about those early days, starting off at the New York Institute of Technology, getting the call from George Lucas (actually George Lucas' real estate lawyer), moving to San Francisco to start up the Lucasfilm Computer Division with Ed Catmull, the Pixar spin-off and subsequent acquisition by Steve Jobs, and more.It was serendipitous to have both Alvy and Rubin there because, as Alvy noted several times, Rubin was quick to point out inaccuracies or inconsistencies in Alvy's stories. Alvy was quite frank about this, stating that while his memories of those events were indisputable in his own mind, he had to reconcile them with Rubin's facts. And when facts weren't available and Rubin had to rely on memories alone, he had the people involved "vet" each others' stories and come to a mutual consensus. One such story was the naming of the company's hardware product, the Pixar Image Computer.
Not only did I find Alvy's reminiscences fascinating because of the personal glimpse into the history of a seminal CG company, I also identified strongly with his self-aware recognition of the interplay between malleable memory and immutable fact. Discovering that Alvy is also interested in consciousness and cognition was just the icing on the cake.
A friend of mine, who was the main impetus behind this event, got to have dinner with both Michael Rubin and Dr. Alvy Ray Smith. That would have been wonderful company with great conversation. You are a lucky man, Tim Belsher, and I am deeply envious of you.
