End of Text: knowledge = connections!
And we keep saving all our knowledge in text… But are we? In our brains there is no text. We save everything into neurons. No not even inside those neurons but in the connections between those neurons. We make associations based on logic. Cat is an animal, just like a dog. Our input travels through the paths of our brain to produce the right output. Highways are formed by making a connection stronger.
A lot is lost
We translate the knowledge to linear text to transfer it. We customize the linearity of the formed story when we speak to a person. We can adapt to his/her context. But when we save the knowledge inside text for general consumption a lot is lost. To consume the text we need to translate it back to ourselves. To our own knowledge and connections.
Connections!
But what if we save all our knowledge into connections, into webs, into networks? Into connections with faceless neurons without words, without language, without any symbol? We could always connect those connections with words and their synonyms. So those words are the knowledge blocks, the references. References to real world meaning. References to other references.
Surfing references
What if we could surf those references connecting them by logic. By logic that saves what the relation of those two words are. But we already do that by connecting words by grammar. Grammar = logic. Grammar linking the words makes the context.
Scavanging knowledge
By interpreting existing words, to seek their references, by using grammar to find their relation you can build connections and surf them. A question is just asking for a connection one has and the other does not. We already have the basics! Wikipedia is the first collection of knowledge. Tags like in del.icio.us are our methods of connecting knowledge. But both still locked in text.
Entering the Brain age
What if we drop text for saving knowledge? We are just locking the information in now. We need open standards! Standards that are free of a proprietary language. Like english has the current monopoly… We need to build an open network, an open connection, an open brain. The beginnings are already here! Who wants to join?
Related
Circular Reasoning t-shirt by Jeff Sheldon, I own one
Taco Jan Osinga Said,
January 31, 2008 @ 14:09
A brain stores data in neurons. In the same way, a computers stores data in small transistors. That’s all about logic, both brain and computers. The only difference is that why do not completly understand how the brain works, there’s still a lot we don’t know. A computer is built by mankind, so we exactly know how RAM and a CPU works.
With the web, we use a stringbased language. That’s not because computers couldn’t save that more effeciently, but because humans can read this language better than 111001010101. The computer translates into something meaningfull, using “text” to “graphic” tables (associations).
I guess, the same things happen in your brain. The data is stored in neurons (equivalent of a transistor). The data on its own is not meaningfull, but can be meaningfull when using the right association tables (in this humans are still far more better than computers). And to do that each person has different association tables. Some memorize by music, some by form, some with words (text), a few with scent, etc.
Computers and humans (on some aspect) work on the same way (with giant differences in performance). In theory computers with computers work great, as is with humans vs. humans. The biggest problem is: how can computers and humans interact effeciently, with all the differences.
Jurriaan Mous Said,
January 31, 2008 @ 14:47
Indeed, there is an interaction problem. I think whole new interfaces are needed. Text has grown out of the limitations of stone tablets to paper. I think something more dynamic could hold the answer. But it is still a search.
There happens a lot in the brain. The consciousness is still unexplained territory. But how it saves information is a bit known. Extracted from how we access our memories we can learn a lot. And by saving it the same way we could maybe access it also more fluently.