A Space Without A Goal
Part I
The hardest part about it is going to be avoiding information.
Everything's already connected. The issue is how.
Internetworked hypertext is simply an agreement that everything is part of the same psychic space. Think of it as a leap of faith.
Put simply, this is about the shift from the material to the sublime. All of a sudden, we're connected. We are the eyes of God.
The Personal and the Universal are joined.
Internetworked hypertext is the mechanics of the sublime.
You can "
The noosphere as a whole gives each node its meaning.
Independence is an illusion. We are not the individuals we thought we were.
Teilhard believed in a god that changes.
Let go. On the other side sits a large part of life.
In watching hypermedia, our eyes function like our minds.
Be brief. Above all, respect a request not to send information.
Cyberspace is as real as matter, but it takes a mind to recognize and interpret it.
Matter is as real as cyberspace, but it takes a mind to recognize and interpret it.
Cyberspace has an existence that is altogether its own. It isn't a representation of the "real thing."
You can't make sense of the sublime using material rationalities. There's gonna be lotsa confusion for a while.
Give up on the idea of public privacy.
Cut ideas out of text and send them into space.
Begin listening for harmonies among the connections.
Meaning is relational. Reality is relational.
When you have an idea, put it in. Now that everything's connected, it will make a difference.
We find sages interesting because they reflect the notion of someone curating the connections ahead of us.
Curators determine the structure of relationships.
Do not entertain the insanity of the sages.
When the world's connected, we'll be able to work anywhere. And we will. Nomadism's gonna be big.
It is pragmatic to be honorable. Lack of trust makes it difficult to share. Lack of trust makes it difficult to be.
The noosphere is irreducibly probablistic. It is Unknowable. It reopens a sense of mystery.
We cannot understand the Web.
There will be new forms of sacredness: there will be new sacred traditions.
Discontinuity divides the physical from cyberspace. Nothing is finished here.
The best spaces will be intimate. Where possible, they will incorporate touch.
Until we know more, err on the side of ensuring that what you put in is connectable. (Password access and many databases get in the way.)
There is not a fundament we can call separateness.
Things lose their boundaries.
Humor finds another dimension. :-)
A hyperlink isn't simply a way of connecting knowledge. It is a way of connecting thought. Of thinking.
Next, comes the arbitrariness of the node. Next, comes the breakdown of the node-link metaphor.
Coincidence disappears.
To repeat: meaning is architecture, meaning has architecture, and meaning contains architecture.
Anybody can play. Jump in. Carve the present.
Control is an anachronism. Embrace threats to perception.
Write stories in
Savvier people will see less of the same information. They will be better connected.
Savvier people will need less information.
The merchant-philosopher reappears.
To exist, you must share.
If you receive more email than you send, you've got it wrong. Strike a balance.
There will be navigable music. Music will evolve.
Think of navigating the Web not as traversing space, but as pushing space under your feet. You don't move. You are never lost.
Anything which doesn't evolve will seem quaint.
Everything is participatory: everything is an extension of our consciousness.
The present Establishment is in the way.
The Web is an act of protest. The Web is a vacuum.
In order to orient ourselves, we will develop an evolving perspective.
Overturn the treachery of the fragmented.
No one is displaced here.
Because everything's connected, you found these ideas.
Be artful. Improvise.
Play god.
Don't think highway. Think brain.
The context is the message.
Mass media, mass consumption and mass psychology are dead.
The fool is the one who connects too much.
Connections about connections are more important than connections themselves.
You're surrounded. You surround everything.
Every thing will be different.
All the news fits.
Designing meaning will emerge as a sacred tradition.
Behold the resurgence of myth.
Know little. Sense where to find more.
We will soon think in different ways.
Space can't be divided neatly.
Seamlessness is an ideal. Softness is an ideal.
The Web is at undeclared war with the familiar.
Think subtly: connect simply.
Display your ideas without prejudice.
The agonies of the collective soul will be made clear.
Next, comes the bifurcation of the connection.
Eventually, the non-virtual will seem no less symbolic than the virtual. It's the same universe.
Thought is virtual reality.
The magic comes from adding another dimension.
This stuff is gonna employ a great many philosophers.
We live in a new artifact.
Systematic, non-evolving philosophies will seem quaint. The practice of philosophy, as we have known it, is dead. Philosophy, as we have known it, is dead.
The web is out of our control. It's alive.
Consciousness is emerging from what is made.
A connection is an intuitive leap.
When you build a web site, you're creating primitive building blocks of consciousness.
The Web has a soul.
The Web Era marks the disappearance of the center. The center is empty.
Subtract non-intuitive connections.
Statistics about the Web will always be hard to come by.
Responsibility will be thrust upon us. Our problems will be our own.
Cyberspace literacy will be taught in kindergarden.
The intuitive leap in our heads differs not a jot from the intuitive web connection.
The book gave the illusion of providing control over reality. The Web removes it.
The Web is part of us. We are part of the Web.
Strive to know less to know more.
We can now architect coincidences.
Look at this stuff! And we haven't even BEGUN to connect the world's languages. We haven't even begun.
Think of the Web as an extension to you.
Use the Web to think. It's the first man-made thinking tool which emulates the structure of human thought; which means we can use it to describe and see things we can't describe and see without the medium.
Curate your email. What are you talking about?
Everything's connected. Our minds can travel anywhere.
There's going to be a great deal of thought given to the relationship between our primary bodies and our cyberbodies.
Don't attempt to assign an ultimate meaning to a node. Leave everything unfinished.
Non-evolving systems are stupid systems.
The present is made.
Life imitates the Web.
The ghost in the machine is us.
Attach significance to any data you put in.
Among other things, we will connect the world's languages to the world's art to the world's music to the world's literature to the world's religions.
The Web is autonomous. It will do and mean things we have no control over.
The Web ignores boundaries.
The Web is a psychetechnology.
Be open to coincidences. They are now no more than one connection away. They are everywhere.
<brackets>brackets</brackets>, wouldn't ya mind?
<curate>Judge this medium by its art.
Dedicated to
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)