Smalltalk, big ideas and how to escape the island

Smalltalk is a language, a system and a state of mind. Although not
originally planned as such, the current reality of most Smalltalks is as
an island sitting on top of a conventional Unix-like operating system --
an apartness that leaves Smalltalk simultaneously cherished and
marginalised.

For several years I've been working on bringing a "Smalltalk state of
mind" to the wider Unix-like system. I'll outline some of this past work
-- including run-time type information in Unix, its application to
dynamic checks even in unsafe languages, faster and more powerful native debugging interfaces, and foundations for true multi-language
environments. I'll then describe some specific near-term goals for
further bringing out the "lurking" Smalltalk in everyday software, from
files to widget systems to scientific notebooks. Finally I'll solicit
the audience's thoughts on how best to make these efforts complement and reinforce other ongoing Smalltalk-related efforts.

BIO: I do practical research on programming systems, with the goal of
making them work for humans rather than vice-versa. My research mostly works on or near the (imaginary) boundary between operating systems and language runtimes, and I prefer work that stands to empower small collectives or individuals, rather than megacorporations. I am currently a Lecturer at King's College London. I completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2012 and have worked for Oracle Labs, a few other