325 | Alvy Ray Smith on Pixar, Pixels, and the Great Digital Convergence

<p>The world is becoming pixelated. As computers and other digital devices become ubiquitous, human knowledge and communication and information is gradually being converted into, and manipulated as, strings of bits. What does that really mean, and what are the ramifications going forward? Alvy Ray Smith is a computer scientist, co-founder of Pixar, and author of&nbsp;<a href="https://alvyray.com/DigitalLight/default.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>A Biography of the Pixel</em>.</a>&nbsp;We go through the journey of how he helped make computer animation a reality, and the implications of what he calls the "Great Digital Convergence."</p><p>Blog post with transcript: <a href="https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/08/18/325-alvy-ray-smith-on-pixar-pixels-and-the-great-digital-convergence/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/08/18/325-alvy-ray-smith-on-pixar-pixels-and-the-great-digital-convergence/</a>...