Non-linear Writing Systems: Radical Culture Hack

Schuyler — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:01:55 -0500

Have you seen the US military's tangled web of a plan for Afghanistan? I really hope they paid that group to make it look complicated for PR purposes, rather than it being something they actually rely on. That is a BAD visualization, which could be much better organized.

As it happens, I have a radical culture-hack qua artistic-project that could theoretically help with problems like this some day. My website is out-of-date and it's complicated, so I'm mostly shy about it. As is typical, the Internet eventually showed me that I was neither the only nor the first person with my idea. Someone asked me recently to write up a short summary about the idea for a tech audience. Since they didn't use it, I figure I can put it here:

It's something of a coincidence that we still write in continuous unbifurcating lines. The first writing was designed for accounting. Scribes would trace out columns and rows like graph paper before filling in the boxes with words. If you've seen a printing press' block-type, you'll know we haven't evolved much further since then.

Glide by Diana Slattery

The original World Wide Web gave us hyperlinking; an improvement, but this is like running around a first person shooter without a map--perhaps an enjoyable waste of time, but a slow way to get to your desired destination.

Pinuyo by René Uittenbogaard

Where are the flow-charts for learning about things other than a state machine? We have to make them! And yet, whereas flow-charts provide a proof that we can build them and even aid our understanding, it is the map metaphor that makes Non-Linear Writing Systems (NLWS) deeply compelling. Navigating a legal system or esoteric philosophy can be made as simple as navigating a city walking-tour.

Ouwi complete first chapter
of Tao Te Ching by me!

Whole fields of thought could be mapped as a fractal-like text book. In poetry and narrative, people's journeys could intertwine on the page as they do in the world.

Making a NLWS with fractal-like properties is both fascinating and a significant challenge. For those with a mathematical bent, there are many useful insights in planar graph theory. Anyone can start, though, by coming up with creative ways to organize and summarize a story visually.

Why to turn your bookshelf into a hard drive

Schuyler — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:41:38 -0500

This post is the beginning of a series on how to destroy all your books while preserving all the information inside them (yes, even your margin notes), for a better and more portable reading experience. Before I go into the how, here is the why...

My wife and I are book fiends. By that I mean we lost the war a long time ago. Several bookshelves are double-layered and stuffed to the brim and book piles teem from behind our couch. We are good customers to the publishing industry. Despite working in a library, I still buy most of the books I read.

I happen to own a 2lb laptop which I can carry everywhere, and love it. On the other hand, I'm still working my way through Against the Day after a year or two, and I mostly blame the fact that it's too heavy to bring on the subway conveniently.

A lot of people complain about reading from screens, but it's getting easier every day. I don't like the DRM on the Kindle, but e-Paper in better forms is coming as soon as this Christmas.

Speaking of DRM, I buy ebooks, too, when they're available--I'll even pay a premium (despite how ridiculous that is, considering the decreased cost for the publishers). They're only sold DRM-ified, but there are some tools to fix that.

That shores up the problem for some new books, but not all of them (I can't find Against the Day in .mobi format). It also doesn't solve the problem that the books are already taking over my couch.

Thus, we come to book scanning.

Book Scanning

First, you might say Google is doing the work for us. They certainly have scanned a lot of books, but unless you only read books from before 1923 or the US Congress suddenly gets a clue, most of your bookshelf will be unavailable that way.

Even as old an opus as Shakespeare really benefits from contemporary editing and analysis.

If you want to keep your books, and have a lot of time to turn the pages, then check out the BookLiberator Project. I don't have that kind of time, nor do I trust my home electronic-craft-project skills.

For me, the whole point is really to get rid of my books while preserving my margin-notes and have my entire library available on my laptop (and backed up to insure against a fire or flood). So, I bought a scanner with a friend and the journey has begun. My bookshelf is emptying a couple inches at a time. Future posts will explain in detail how we're going about it.