notthisbodyTue, Sep 16, 2008 meganman: i think this hits the nail on the head in terms of how the Polytopia can operate. I agree as well about the importance of the human corpus.
One idea that comes to me, regarding this:
Everything they say is captured and shows up in a shared data space where an connections are made between all things that have been and will be said. The sum total of their mental work is enhanced by an algorithm that brings together relevant information. The hot spots of thought activity will be evident and visualized in 3D space.
I think we should really look into physical and biological systems to help us with the visualizations of this system. For instance, perhaps these connections, or lets call them synapses, could be coded by wavelengths of light, infrared being a synapse that leads to little activity, and UV light being a synapse that leads to a very active space.
And then the width of that synapse would work like the truck of a tree, signifying the amount of branches that are connected to it. On thinking about this more, this is less like branches and more like roots...or...rhizomes?
Rhizome theory is also gaining currency in the educational field, as a means of framing knowledge creation and validation in the online era. In 'Innovate - Journal of Online Education, Vol. 4, Issue 5', Dave Cormier criticizes the limitations of the expert-centered pedagogical planning and publishing cycle and posits instead a rhizomatic model of learning. In this rhizomatic model, knowledge is negotiated, and the learning experience is a social as well as a personal knowledge creation process with mutable goals and constantly negotiated premises. The rhizome metaphor, which represents a critical leap in coping with the loss of a canon against which to compare, judge, and value knowledge, may be particularly apt as a model for disciplines on the bleeding edge where the canon is fluid and knowledge is a moving target.
meganman: i think this hits the nail on the head in terms of how the Polytopia can operate. I agree as well about the importance of the human corpus.
One idea that comes to me, regarding this:
I think we should really look into physical and biological systems to help us with the visualizations of this system. For instance, perhaps these connections, or lets call them synapses, could be coded by wavelengths of light, infrared being a synapse that leads to little activity, and UV light being a synapse that leads to a very active space.
And then the width of that synapse would work like the truck of a tree, signifying the amount of branches that are connected to it. On thinking about this more, this is less like branches and more like roots...or...rhizomes?
- Wikipedia