Brian Silverman

{{short description|Canadian computer scientist}}

Brian Silverman is a Canadian computer scientist, the creator of many programming environments for children,[http://constructingmodernknowledge.com/cmk08/?p=570 Computing Pioneer Returns to CMK 2010 Faculty!] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102192125/http://constructingmodernknowledge.com/cmk08/?p=570 |date=November 2, 2013 }}, Constructing Modern Knowledge, September 29, 2010. and a researcher in cellular automata.

Silverman was a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1970s, where he was one of the creators of a tinkertoy computer that played tic-tac-toe.{{citation|url=http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cfs/472_html/Intro/TinkertoyComputer/TinkerToy.html |title=Computer Recreations: A Tinkertoy computer that plays tic-tac-toe |first=A. K. |last=Dewdney |authorlink=Alexander Dewdney |date=October 1989 |journal=Scientific American |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0889-102 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120031409/http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cfs/472_html/Intro/TinkertoyComputer/TinkerToy.html |archivedate=January 20, 2013 }} As a student at MIT, Silverman had worked with Seymour Papert, and when Papert founded Logo Computer Systems, Inc. in 1980 to commercialize the Logo programming language, Silverman became its director of research.[http://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/logo/index.html What is Logo?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520074550/http://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/logo/index.html |date=2013-05-20 }}, Logo Foundation, retrieved 2013-02-10. He later worked as a consulting scientist at the MIT Media Lab, where he ported Logo to "programmable bricks", a precursor to Lego Mindstorms,{{citation|title=Robotic explorations: a hands-on introduction to engineering|first=Fred G.|last=Martín|publisher=Prentice Hall|year=2001|isbn=9780130895684|page=11}}. and where he was one of the developers of the Scratch programming language. He is the co-founder, along with Paula Bonta and Mitchel Resnick,"[http://www.picocricket.com/picopeople.html PicoCricket - Invention Kit That Integrates Art and Technology.]" PicoCricket - Invention Kit That Integrates Art and Technology. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2013. and president of the Playful Invention Company, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which develops the Programmable Cricket, a spin-off from the Media Lab.{{cite web |url=https://www.playfulinvention.com/portfolio/the-picocricket-kit/ |title= The PicoCricket Kit | Playful Invention Company|website=www.playfulinvention.com |date= 29 January 2013|access-date=2022-06-18}}

Silverman was part of a team that reverse-engineered the MOS Technology 6502 and Intel 4004 microprocessors and developed transistor-level emulators for them,{{citation|url=http://archive.archaeology.org/1107/features/mos_technology_6502_computer_chip_cpu.html|title=Digging into Technology's Past: "Digital archaeologists" excavate the microprocessor that ushered in the home computing revolution|journal=Archaeology|volume=64|issue=4|date=July–August 2011|first=Nikhil|last=Swaminathan}}.[http://www.4004.com/tim-mcnerney-4004-talk-transcript.html Tim McNerney's talk at the Computer History Museum on 4004 35th anniversary project], Intel 4004 — 35th Anniversary Project, retrieved 2013-02-11.{{Cite book|last1=James|first1=Greg|last2=Silverman|first2=Barry|last3=Silverman|first3=Brian|title=ACM SIGGRAPH 2010 Talks |chapter=Visualizing a classic CPU in action: The 6502 |date=2010|page=1|location=New York, New York, USA|publisher=ACM Press|doi=10.1145/1837026.1837061|isbn=9781450303941|s2cid=1290581}} and that ported Spacewar!, one of the earliest digital computer games, to Java, by writing another emulator for the PDP-1 on which the game was originally written.{{citation|title=Happy 40th, computer games|newspaper=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2000/dot_life/1464171.stm|first=Mark|last=Ward|date=30 July 2001}}.

He also invented several well-known cellular automaton rules, including Brian's Brain,{{citation|title=The Lifebox, the Seashell, And the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality, the Meaning of Life, And How to Be Happy|first=Rudy|last=Rucker|authorlink=Rudy Rucker|publisher=Basic Books|year=2006|isbn=9781560258988|page=242|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xrs0jf5gP08C&pg=PA242}}. Seeds, and Wireworld;{{citation|title=A New Kind of Science|first=Stephen|last=Wolfram|authorlink=Stephen Wolfram|publisher=Wolfram Media|year=2002|page=1117|url=http://www.wolframscience.com/reference/notes/1117b}} working with his brother Barry Silverman he recovered the IBM APL\360 sources from tape to a state where they could be run on a mainframe emulator.