Pablo Machón

Pablo Machón | Computer Science | Libre Software

Pablo Machón is a computer scientist, computer engineer and entrepreneur. He works in the computer sciences —from algorithms and theoretical foundations to computer graphics—, in cybernetics, and also in the ethics of technology, a matter that is as much technical as it is philosophical. For years he has founded and run technology-based companies, developed products and advised companies and institutions, in Spain and abroad. He programs and develops innovation projects.

His field is the study of the use of computing devices, and of what principles ought to govern that activity. Hence his guiding thread, libre computing: the idea of free software1"What is Free Software?", GNU Project 2"Free Software, Free Society", R. Stallman taken beyond software itself, to free (open) formats and standards, privacy and technological independence, understood as a matter of the rights of the person and the preservation of individual freedoms. He has defended these ideas from foundations and projects devoted to free knowledge, and has applied them in the least comfortable terrain of all: that of business and public administration.

Although academically trained, it is a curiosity hard to pin down that has always driven his work. He is interested in mathematics and electronics, in art —among which he grew up— and music, and above all in the point where those things meet, as in generative art. He does many things, and tries to do them with a certain depth.

So much for the part that pretends to be objective. A confession is in order: this third-person profile was written by me. It's a small habit of personal websites —speaking of oneself as if someone else were doing it—; better to carry on in the first person.

I have worked in computer science and cybernetics for a long time, and I'm more interested in what withstands the passing of time than in "whatever is in fashion this season". I'd rather choose technology well than complain about it afterwards, and being demanding when doing so seems to me a matter of judgement before technique. That is why I speak of libre computing and not of slogans: it isn't a banner, it's a way of deciding. I'm an optimistic possibilist Luddite, that is, I have a very low tolerance for technological whims; if machines and robots fascinate me, it is through a filter of high standards.

I don't consider myself an activist. I'm more persuaded by the way of example3«Universal concreto», J. Gomá than by that of the proclamation, and libre computing has, for me, no political colour: it can be defended from very different positions, as the facts show. I try to explain it with precision, without empty jargon and without asking anyone to enlist in anything. But when someone asks me about "my mission", I usually reply "to liberate cyberspace", paraphrasing Richard Stallman. Humour saves us4"One does not kill by anger, but by laughter. Come, let us kill the spirit of gravity!", Nietzsche5"Humour is the great armour with which one defends oneself in this vale of tears.", Cela.

I'm now retired from professional activity. I do research in libre computing and libre cybernetics, I collaborate pro bono with some institutions and companies, and the companies I helped build go on their way. This site gathers that trajectory and a few ideas. If anything here proves useful to you, it will already have served its purpose.