• a [[conference]].
  • [[2022-08-16]]
  • #event https://www.eventbrite.com/e/render-tools-for-thinking-tickets-387188961607
  • #go https://www.betaworks.com/event/render-tools-for-thinking#livestream-section
  • organized by [[betaworks]]
  • I'll be [[scribing]] live, let's see how it goes :)
    • If you're viewing this on anagora.org, you can join in and take notes in the public document ("stoa") below.
    • I'll use one section below per session; I'll probably only do one or two live though.
  • [[plexus]] will be used here (hadn't heard of it)
  • [[render]]
  • see also [[tools for thought]] (a different group/term, but with some overlapping members)

[[How Do We Define Tools for Thinking and Why Do They Matter?]]

• [[john borthwick]] [[jerry michalski]]
• [[john borthwick]]
  • How can a [[computer]] be a better [[tool for thinking]]?
  • The word information -> better forming our minds.
  • How to take all the [[ideas]] of a flow of information and analyzing them as they influence the world.
  • What can we do with well tuned datasets??
  • [[open protocols]]
  • all the data could be owned by people contributing it, against the recent trend towards [[silos]]
  • [[Associative thinking]]; [[scaffolding]] them together; let them simmer in our brains.
    • Taking a walk, going to sleep.
    • Scaffold, then [[sleep]].
• [[jerry michalski]]
  • was introduced to his now wife as the [[biggest brain]] on the internet, high expectations :)
  • [[protocol]]
    • [[jazz hands]] means agreement
    • [[downward jazz]] means disagreement
  • #push [[thebrain]] ~ [[the brain]]
    • #push [[jerry's brain]]
      • one [[mindmap]] since [[1997]], this dec will be [[25]] years
      • #go https://jerrysbrain.com
    • [[one million]] thoughts
    • [[dioramas]] out of [[toothpicks]]
    • [[opinions]]
    • [[hypercard]] could have been the future (might be still!)
      • [[bubble charter]]
      • long standing addiction to the tool
    • [[demo]]
      • [[mind mapping]]
      • [[visual analysis tools]]
      • [[mapping tools for thinking]]
    • [[team mode]] is not what he'd like
    • how to allow different people to use different tools, yet still create an aggregated insight
  • we're dumber than we normally would be
    • [[kardashians]] family details vs [[politics]], how we focus our attention
    • building a [[shared memory]] is a piece in the puzzle we need to solve to make society better
    • [[better recall]] leads to [[reinforcement]]
  • two more points
    • [[zettelkasten]]
    • [[roam cult]] ~ [[the cult of roam]]
  • [[civilizational]] aspect to this
    • [[open access]] influencing research, journalism, politics and governance
    • #push [[agora]]
      • [[making better decisions together as a society]]
  • first thing recorded was [[theatre]]
    • put the camera on a [[dolly]] and you get the vocabulary of cinema (pans, …)
    • [[internet]] is stuck in v1
    • we have not levelled up because of [[drm]] and other constraints
    • we need to liberate it and instrument it or make it [[executable]]

[[Inflection Points for Tools for Thinking]]

• [[john borthwick]]
  • introduces [[daniel doyon]] [[tristan homsi]]
• #push [[readwise]]
  • [[daniel doyon]] [[tristan homsi]]
  • [[superhuman]]
  • passion for: [[reading]] and [[spaced repetition]]
  • how to improve [[reading]] the same way computers improved [[writing]]
  • tool to [[resurface]] (-> [[reinforce]])
  • started with [[zapier]]
• [[john borthwick]] where do you see us by the end of the decade?
  • belief that there will be a lot of change in this space
  • when they started, [[evernote]] was the most popular request -- that's changed a lot since then
  • on a macro level
    • (missed one beat here I think)
    • paradigm shift with #push [[notion]] (2017-2020), block based architecture
      • other innovation: [[multiplayer]]
    • then #push [[roam]] (blew up in 2021), first somewhat mainstream [[graph database]]
      • [[backlinks]] and [[transclusion]]
      • [[daily notes]] page
    • then many tools coming online, but no clear next item of big innovation
      • #push [[agora]]
        • waiting for the next [[inflection point]]
  • why did [[evernote]] get stuck?
    • they nailed the [[consumer]] use case, never were able to do [[enterprise]] like [[notion]] did
      • that held them back relative to notion
    • they got very distracted in the middle of the growth, they were developing a [[recipe app]]
    • they fumbled their way
  • one of the promises of the internet:
    • you can just build anything, no need to ask for permission (if you have the basic resources, etc.)
    • [[notion]] raised VC, a million or two before going mainstream
    • [[roam]] raised very little before really growing
    • #push [[readwise]] didn't want to raise any money, unsure of the venture scale
      • started charging a monthly fee for a consumer product (shock! :)), now can support a small team
      • [[bootstrapped]]
    • if you don't have the enterprise use case and are consumer based instead, it's unclear how sustainable you can be a priori (-> in the current landscape; but that might be ripe for a change, enough people want a way out of walled gardens, want a choice.)
  • [[q&a]]
    • [[anki]] for writing?
      • have been exploring something, dogfood
      • [[theme reviews]]
      • some people do this:
        • [[word vomit]] the start of an essay
        • delineate [[fragments]], do theme reviews (on key terms?) over weeks
          • -> [[wikilinks]]?
        • then [[sequence]]]
      • [[repeat]]
        • you can get to 80% of the work fast this way
    • how does this compare to [[gpt-3]] generation? asker feels that AI based suggestions aren't really that great
      • can't speak about better/worse, but for some people this might feel easier
  • [[core thesis for ai]]
    • the AI can't be the product
    • you won't print an essay ghost written by [[gpt-3]]
      • -> yet? what about the recent paper that was written by [[gpt-3]], and for which they got first [[authorship]]?
  • [[john borthwick]] many silos enforcing separation between ideas; also a risk of being fascinated by the technology or the tool
    • [[jerry michalski]] is a good example of focusing on the thoughts, on the information, going beyond the [[tool]]
    • it feels like the space has gone [[mainstream]] now
      • but we're really still in the [[early adopter]] phase
  • [[audio]]?
    • grown a lot in audio
    • 15-20% a year (check?)
    • transforming audio to a block or a highlight: there are early attempts, podcasting [[air]] or [[snipped]] (?)
    • not a seamless experience
  • [[uncanny valley]]
    • [[transcripts]] almost at human level but not quite
    • but it seems like [[text to speech]] and [[speech to text]] can be assumed to be coming, you can probably assume that transcripts for everything will be available
  • #push [[amazon]]
    • one company is controlling ebooks and is making it hard to innovate (if I got that right?)
  • bet: innovation more likely either on [[podcast]] side or [[text to speech]]
  • [[john borthwick]] the downsides of [[silos]]
    • [[readwise]] has done a great job at getting at least [[highlight]] access
    • [[betaworks]] did [[findings]]
      • founders: [[spiritual predecessor]] of [[readwise]]
  • #q over the last n years the [[tools for thought]] space has been changing; how has usage of your tool changed with that?
    • started with [[srs]]
    • started with [[kindle]] highlights, disentangling and making useful
    • there was a period when people thought they would do anything in a particular tool, like [[roam]]
      • people were trying to get everything into [[roam]]: putting documents in blocks there to be able to annotate them.
      • that has [[cooled down]]
    • at some point they asked: what's the number one feature we need to implement to actually make money, charge for it?
      • [[evernote]] was the first big one, that would not be the case before
    • [[tweet threads]]
      • the user of [[twitter]] has helped advance the space
  • #q if you did [[enterprise]], what would you do?
    • [[consumer vs enterprise]]
      • vs
        • [[single player]] vs [[multiplayer]]
    • enterprise is in the back of their minds, but it's not currently core
    • enterprise saas is a great business model though, but there's not as clear an enterprise vision for now
  • #q on [[information density]] are people reading slower? it takes twice as long to listen than to read
    • attention is more often split when listening
    • less information absorbed when people are listening
    • are you able to unplug and read for, say, 20 minutes?
    • "throw all your technology away, go into a cottage and read paper"
      • the problem can probably be solved this way, but that's not feasible actually
      • "fight technology with technology"
      • maybe it's good to be able to read on your smartphone, how do you accomplish that?
      • [[emergent reading]] (?)
  • #q it seems you're in the position of [[owning the plumbing]]: can you lean into that, are you blocked by the players in this space?
    • it would be great to have an [[open standard]]
    • [[annotations]] [[hypothesis]]
      • [[chrome]] has started to add a little bit to it
      • but it's very [[web focused]]
    • (the stream glitched for me here, lost about a minute)
• [[john borthwick]] on the [[knowledge blob]]: it should be transportable
  • they had to come up with their own core abstractions when developing their reading app.
  • why don't we build on top of a [[block]] architecture]]?
  • "like it was the fashion at the time" :)
    • metaphor from user feedback: no, it doesn't really work, it's too soupy (?)
    • it felt "too liquid"
    • how to turn [[fluid thoughts]] into [[coherent text]]
      • [[blocks]] -> [[docs]]
    • [[document]] ~ [[doc]]
      • you have [[blocks]] and [[docs]]
      • imagine your thoughts being injected into a doc
    • meaning exchange for [[knowledge blobs]]
      • annotation
      • highlight
      • notes that you take while reading
    • when you want to read a 120 tweet thread, you actually want to see that as a [[document]] that you can [[annotate]] as a whole
• #q on the toolchain aspect of the [[plumbing]]: love how you can jump from tool to tool. How much effort do you put into customizing the ingestion engines? On the Enterprise side: would love [[readwise]] for [[slack]] :)
  • hacked into something like the latter :)
    • -> I think bots like [[agora bot]] are sufficient?
  • [[jinja]] seemed to solve all problems for customization cross tool
    • [[low floor, high ceiling approach]]
    • -> interesting, [[agora protocol]] seems related
• #q Use cases in education; have you been thought about getting involved with schools? Have you thought about the impact of adoption by students who could be forced to use it? :)
  • Education just hasn't been something they've been successful at, haven't found a way to penetrate that field.
    • -> [[hypothes.is]] collaboration?

[[Demo: Protocol Design for Tools for Thinking]]

• [[gordon brander]] on [[subconscious]]
  • (87 people watching at this point in time)
  • actually talking about something on a larger scale than [[subconscious]]
  • the internet is already a tool for thought
  • we've gone through [[sense making crises]] several times on a historical level
  • we're going through another and we'll need to get through it
    • [[planet scale challenges]]
      • [[climate crisis]]
      • [[kardashev]] [[type 3 civilizations]]
      • #push [[protopoi]]
        • space of [[possible futures]]
      • outcome is a function of how we learn to [[think together]]
      • thinking together as a [[whole planet]]
      • -> [[gordon brander]] is [[building an Agora]]!
    • #push [[flanbook]]
      • [[apps]] trap [[thoughts]] in [[saas silos]]
      • no way to think as a species
    • #push [[agora protocol]]
      • [[a protocol for thought]]
    • some of the [[old dreams]]:
      • [[xanadu]]
      • what if we could all contribute to the same space together?
      • they were heavy lift back then
      • but we've made some technical progress!
      • [[noosphere]] ~ [[agora]]
    • took some time off here to post about this to social networks: [[gordon brander]] is building an [[agora]]! they don't call it that, but that doesn't matter. It looks technically advanced too.
    • [[memos]] are a really flexible data structure
      • (super-thoughts? preceded them?)
      • very generic content: they are essentially [[envelopes]] that can carry anything
      • [[envelope]] has:
        • [[header metadata]]
        • a pointer to some content on [[ipfs]]
        • a pointer to the previous version on [[ipfs]]
        • things just don't disappear anymore
      • [[ucan]] authorizes apps to manage data on your behalf
        • can allow us to build a [[self sovereign]] security model
        • you own your keys, you put them in a [[wallet]]
        • fits [[passwordless sign on]] ~ [[passkeys]]
        • you [[own your identity]], very important to them
        • leverages [[did]] and such
      • [[sphere servers]] are [[superpeers]]. personal [[ipfs gateways]].
        • [[gossip network]]

[[The History and Future of Software as Tools for Thinking]]

• (missed the first minute)
• [[jerry michalski]] with [[howard rheingold]]
  • how do communities work? how do we get smarter humans?
  • pass the floor
  • (split screen with [[jerry's brain]])
• [[howard rheingold]]
  • [[palo alto research center]]
  • went there for [[alan kay]]'s article for [[scientific american]]
    • [[microelectronics in the personal computer]]
    • if you weren't in [[xerox parc]] you just didn't have what he showed on screen
    • then [[time magazine]] making the [[personal computer]] [[person of the year]]
      • the [[steves]] standing on the shoulders of giants
    • it didn't come from defense contractors, it didn't come from corporations, it cames from [[individuals]] who used what institutions provided to build tools for thinking
    • [[engelbart]]
    • (missed one name here or two, check recording)
    • [[von neumann]]
    • [[alan turing]]
    • [[boole]]
    • [[lovelace]]
    • [[babbage]]
  • led him to create.
• [[jerry michalski]]
  • [[vannevar bush]] [[memex]]
  • [[howard rheingold]] on [[licklider]] [[1960]]
    • -> shame I can't read Jerry's brain here, I didn't know this name at first clearly :)
  • (echo/[[feedback issues]])
  • [[article]]
    • [[man computer symbiosis]]
  • [[J.C.R. Licklider]] got a position (which one?), had read [[Douglas Engelbart]].
    • [[licklider]] funded (sp?) [[engelbart]]
    • led to [[mother of all demos]]
    • [[integrated systems of humans]] using [[language]], [[artifacts]], [[methodology]], [[training]]
  • [[licklider]] has a [[psychologist]] on staff
    • later involved in [[microdosing]] experiments?
• #q [[jerry michalski]] what from the original vision has worked (and maybe we take for granted) and what hasn't (yet)?
  • materialized:
    • pointing and clicking
    • multimedia
  • shared notebook for people working on projects was part of the original demo
  • tried going with [[organizations]] where these tools didn't work out, but the vision was as follows
  • #push [[works]]
    • [[a work]]
      • service or product that your enterprise created
    • [[b work]]
      • part of the enterprise that works on improving ability to create that product
    • [[c work]]
      • #push [[agora]]
        • improving your ability to improve
    • vision of [[c work]] done as [[skunkworks]], introducing innovation to [[b work]] sections
  • vision was an [[integrated toolkit]]
  • note taking apps, rapid learning apps
    • we need to integrate these things as a [[toolkit]], integrate [[thinking environments]]
    • there are [[relationships]] that really need to be made more clear
      • [[knowledge tools]], [[learning tools]], [[thinking tools]]
    • there are ways of using visualizations of what we know to think
• #q [[howard rheingold]] do you think of the brain as a way to think or a tool? (check?)
  • Jerry thinks of it as [[photoshop]] for ideas
  • (Demo bridging several nodes to [[cholera]].)
  • Putting all nodes side by side in a single tool (interface) is instrumental.
  • thebrain's flexibility is one of the most attractive factors.
  • [[howard rheingold]] it externalizes your memory
    • [[the magic number 7]]
    • offloading leading going to higher levels of abstraction
    • thinking visually w.r.t. the network of connections leads to a new framework of thought that would be otherwise difficult to hold in our minds at once
  • -> Howard wrote books before some of these tools; his office was plastered with papers and notes
    • Stacks of notes that could be moved around.
    • Ability to externalize was there; the ability to think with symbolic items.
  • [[jerry michalski]]
    • [[expressive capacity]]
    • different tools have different expressive capacity
    • when [[cad]] was new, it lacked a lot of the features it has now
    • when [[shopping for a tool]], it's hard to figure out which features we need a priori
    • some tools are very workflow opinionated, very rigid
      • e.g. tools that enforce color coding
• #q [[jerry michalski]] you set out to explore these tools and report back; what did you learn from your journeys?
  • [[howard rheingold]] throughout history, we see that people who use tools find things to do with them
  • the [[internet]] is a good example: there is a myth that it was created as a bomb proof communication medium.
    • actually [[packet switching]] was created for that purpose
    • which was then adopted for the internet
    • people like [[licklider]] knew of the need to network to exchange information
    • [[researchers]] started using the network to talk about things like [[science fiction]]
    • [[bob taylor]]: lesser known but very important character
      • check out the video with [[john m.]] from [[university of texas]] at austin
    • researchers supported the emerging community
    • [[intergalactic network]]
      • [[1968]] [[computer as a communication device]]
      • the users were the ones who turned the internet into a communication medium
    • [[stackexchange]]
    • the model of an expert who broadcasts knowledge isn't as useful as a group or community of people who are [[learning together]] ~ [[colearning]]
• #q [[jerry michalski]] on the problem of assigning truth values (paraphrasing, check)
  • daughter started using search engines to do homework
  • had to explain that up until now when teachers assigned a book, there were a number of authorities participating in that assignment (and could potentially act as gatekeepers)
    • it's up to you to determine if it is [[good]] information, [[bad]] information, [[misinformation]].
  • technology is advancing so fast that [[fake info]] risks becoming uncontrollable
    • solution unknown but might require algorithmic filtering
      • -> [[open source algorithms]] in the [[commons]] may be the solution IMHO
  • who do you [[trust]]? can you adopt their lists (adopt their trust)?
  • [[sift]] if you're trying to check the veracity of that webpage, get off that webpage
    • search name of the author for example
    • -> metadata overlay for the web? provided by [[hypothes.is]], [[noosphere]], [[agora]]
  • [[jerry michalski]]
    • #push [[fellowship of the link]]
      • remembers asking questions on (forum name missing)
      • a maybe nicer/simpler time, but points at potential
• #q On [[misinformation]]/disinformation. Politically: what's your view on the human mind itself, thinking of it as self-reinforcing loops? if you have a personal belief and you may or may not reinforce it.
  • [[confirmation bias]]: more attuned to evidence that supports what we already believe
  • the role of emotion and [[attachment]]
  • don't know the answer to how to solve these tensions
  • how to pull in the right people into the right discussions/contexts
  • human prejudices which keep us from learning things that we have not been yet trained to learn
    • doesn't mean we won't discover ways to work around that
  • we have to think of the strong connections between artifacts, language, metodology, training as they enable us to understand the psychology of the individual and the group
  • [[experts on the well]] (sp?) is still around
  • #push [[agora]]
    • [[social capital]], [[knowledge capital]], [[community]] are all key
• [[jerry michalski]]
  • case: [[blair]] (sp?) scribbling all posts in the [[well]] before suicide :(
    • [[tribute]]
• #q is there a place for [[authority figures]] without going back to [[gatekeeping]]
  • [[howard rheingold]] [[authority figure]] can be a loaded term
  • [[authority of the text]]: how much you can trust the text, and the person
  • teaching experience: [[social media]]
  • there's a place for [[authority]] and for [[questioning authority]]
    • questioning is even more important now that we have fewer [[gatekeepers]]
  • [[jerry michalski]] [[the great transformation]]
    • "don't ever read this book"
    • critique of [[polanyi]]
    • how do we steer away from radicalization as it's endorsed/enabled by corporate platforms?
• #q (missed the gist of question about tools for thought, check)
  • [[howard rheingold]] standard psychological tests with people and substituted a computer or cartoon rendition of a person or a computer voice: people attribute human qualities to things that computers do
  • we have not evolved to make a distinction between synthetic and organic voices
  • understanding our limitations can lead to working around them
  • one problem with teaching critical thinking:
    • if you teach questioning authority, they will question:
      • teachers
      • family
      • schools
      • governments
      • ...and they tend not to like that :)
    • when do you teach it? is elementary school too early?
• #q [[michael]] thank you for your book. Two pieces to the description earlier of analog thinking extension: (...). How do those map, or not, to digital tools?
  • experiments with new interfaces
    • move blocks around and change the computer landscape
  • book: [[the extended mind]]
    • there's a lot of research that shows that teachers who use gestures are more effective teachers
    • our bodies and how we manipulate forms in space communicate a way of thinking
  • [[jerry michalski]] sometimes a computer can slow you down and ask: how are you feeling right now? there's many processes (e.g. somatic) ongoing; slowing down and becoming mindful can help you become aware of them.
    • physiological responses to new information.
    • can we find that moment and call it out? offer a chance to slow down then, going deeper?
  • [[jerry michalski]] there are people who are aware of their heartbeat and people who aren't
    • stock brokers: people who are aware of their heartbeat make better financial decisions (I think; the stream cut out for 10s)
• #q what's the more psychoactive experience you've had with a computer?
  • [[howard rheingold]] talked way into [[xerox parc]], got access to an [[alto]] computer with a [[5mb]] hard disk
    • being able to move a paragraph around without retyping a page (!)
    • "it was [[blissful]]" :D
    • "it was not just a way to manipulate information, I could think better with it"
  • computer programming does this with abstraction
  • what people did early online, late 1980s, people took psychedelics and chatted online
    • [[lerl]] (sp?)
  • took [[lsd]] again at some point, put on [[google earth]] and had a realization that what [[google]] was doing was building an [[ai]]
• #q what do you think about [[tools for thought]] for modeling, simulations
  • (had to context switch but this sounded interesting)
  • [[betterverse]]

[[Q&A]]

• Have to drop out for the day by now to prep dinner and start winding down for the night :)

[[Tools for Thinking Product Demos]]

• TBD.

[[Leveraging AI and ML in Building New Tools for Thinking]]

• TBD.

[[Idea Dimensionality and Representing Semantic Meaning]]

• TBD.

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