- Feb 2019
-
www.dougengelbart.org www.dougengelbart.org
-
Occasionally he inserts a comment of his own, either linking it into the main trail or joining it by a side trail to a particular item
At this point in reading, I remember a story written by Cortázar: Continuity of the Parks. We slowly learn that the reader of the story is actually the protagonist. I am annotating about someone foreshadowing my own annotation method. "A trail of many items" could well be the many tabs open in my browser, for instance. Kind of seeing yourself in a mirror as you follow the description.
Continuity of the Parks. A one-page story downloadable here.
-
The language used to compose these process-description statements for the computer is considerably more compact and precise than is a natural language, such as English, and there is correspondingly less advantage to be gained by appending special links and tags for giving us humans a better grasp of their meaning
Language characteristics.
-
The process of tying two items together is the important thing.
Learning through layered asociations.Learning as hyperlinking.
-
-
dougengelbart.org dougengelbart.org
-
language
The means we use to encode affect language. Why doesn't it affect the message or the concept as well?
Do people feel they need to use an emoji as part of their message or is its use triggered by the medium?
-
concepts in their raw, unverbalized form
There is a way to use symbols to evoke an original message in a natural language. Unlike shorthand, which are symbols that have a direct reference to words or syllables, Rozan's notetaking method for interpreters focuses on concepts. Originally published in French in 1956, it was probably not well known at the time Engelbart wrote this report. Interpreters do not work finding word equivalence, but concepts recreated in another language. An example here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpreting_notes
-
he could successfully make use of even more powerful symbol-structure manipulation processes utilizing the Memex capabilities
Scalability
-
Extension of existing photographic techniques to give each individual a continuously available miniature camera for recording anything
A mobile phone. A tool to make any of us become a reporter anywhere.
-
This supplemented the individual's memory and ability to visualize. (We are not concerned here with the value derived from human cooperation made possible by speech and writing, both forms of external symbol manipulation. We speak of the manual means of making graphical representations of symbols—
The expression "manual means of making graphical representation" makes me think of photography as a memory aid or augmenting tool. Although, of course, it would not necessarily refer to a symbolic portrayal.
Interestingly, neuroscience today affirms our memory is far from a simple pointing to the past function, but it actually alters or edits the memory itself each time we go back to it and probably the subject who remembers changes in the process. Could that be an example of how technological aids can augment our brain processing of memories?
I have recently explored this idea on my blog in a post called As We May Remember (a wink to the Vannebar Bush essay) http://eltnotes.blogspot.com/2019/02/as-we-may-remember.html
-
first draft could represent a free outpouring of thoughts
This paragraph outlines a truly augmented way of writing that cannot happen using paper. To me noting on paper has changed purpose. Sometimes it is an echo noting of a quote, a key word, a diagram. It is closer to drawing. But writing as thinking out loud, writing as trying to make sense...that is tech aided. I am sure my mind changes its processimg focus depending on whether I face a screen or a copybook. Just as you shift perspective when you watch through a camera lens to take a good pic...you see more.
-
language also affects the evolution of the new concepts
Language as an evolution enabler.
-
the evolution of language was affected by the concepts the people developed and used
Language evolution
-
symbolic portrayal
Language as a symbol. Relationship to memory.
-
Already the system language shows the effect of this process—i.e., a concept and its name.
Language "technology" at work: reference function and synthesis to make the concept maneagable like a tool.
-
Language—the way in which the individual parcels out the picture of his world into the concepts that his mind uses to model that world, and the symbols that he attaches to those concepts and uses in consciously manipulating the concepts ("thinking").
Language is here introduced as a key concept of the framework. At this point, Engelbart refers to language in use, particularly used for thinking. Does he mean that improving the language system you also get to develop higher order thinking skills? Would he be pointing to augmenting the language system itself, getting better or evolving by using it to think about the world? A meta-learning?
I need to read more....
-
Every person who does his thinking with symbolized concepts (whether in the form of the English language, pictographs, formal logic, or mathematics) should be able to benefit significantly.
Language as "technology".
-
Suppose you had a new writing machine—think of it as a high-speed electric typewriter with some special features. You could operate its keyboard to cause it to write text much as you could use a conventional typewriter.
This sentence is a sudden anchor back to 1962. You simply read and forget how long ago it was written.
-
-
framework.thoughtvectors.net framework.thoughtvectors.net
-
novice
At first, Engelbart's text seems aimed at experts at his level. It is challenging to think how to relate to his work as a novice.
I have been reflecting on this paragraph in my blog. http://eltnotes.blogspot.com/2019/02/amid-experts-and-augmented-novices.html
-