15 York Valley Cr., North York, Ont., M2P 1A8Tel.: (416) 410-2202, Fax: 489-4688 Books and Managing Complexity Draft: for review only Rainer von Königslöw Version 0.1: June 14, 1997 Copyright 1997, All rights reserved. Introduction & Overview Objectives of this book: I would like to clarify in my own mind what books are all about, and I would like to share with you my speculations. -- informal voice Brief history: I got into this investigation from a start in theoretical phyics, and then an early conviction that the important question is not what nature is like, but how we formulate our mental models, how me make and verify our pictures of nature. Improving books I believe that we are in the process of reinventing books, and I enjoy being part of that process. To be really effective in that process, I believe that it is important to gain a perspective on books - what role they play, what changes they have gone through, and how they affect (have affected) our lives. I believe that we can apply a metaphor: a book is like a car, used to transport information. Like a car, it has gone through many changes over time, and it is in the process of changing further. Managing (coping with) complexity I believe that we are surrounded by complexity - a core attribute of "civilization" as we know it - city dwelling, working, raising children, managing families and homes I want to convince you that managing information is a the heart of coping successfully with complexity. I will use a book metaphor - at the core is the ability to externalize symbolic information. I treat computers as an extension of books Note: there are two sides of computers - the giant calculator view that focusses on processes and programs (such as artificial intelligence). - the giant & complex book view focusses on the information storage, access, retrieval, communication, and sharing To improve how we deal with complexity we have to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of dealing with symbolic information: find what is relevant, use and transform it well, generate effective output access to information: finding reference, locating, opening -- library functions absorption of information & conversion into useful form (information generally is not spelled out in the form in which we need it): reading, abstracting and reasoning with metaphors (computer programs, mathematics are examples) working with the information: short term memory, processing stages, calculations, filtering, distortions (using as metaphor in turn?), abstraction producing / recording output information: Understanding books and improving them - with electronic books I believe we have been re-inventing books with the use of computers. I furthermore believe that it may be timely to asses where we are, where we have come from, and where we might be going. I believe that books have gone through several major transitions: We can speculate that it all started with "drawing in the sand" - making a temporary external record to demonstrate something, persuade someone. The first is linking drawing and interpreting - making a semi-permanent pictorial record on walls, in caves The second is linking writing and reading - making a record using a symbolic representation The third is using a portable means - tablets, papyrus, strings - and making copies for multiple readers, multiple sites The fourth is making books available in libraries The fifth is Gutenberg and the mass production and mass distribution of identical copies The sixth is the institutionalization of universal literacy (still happening in parts of the world) The seventh is the invention of alternative forms of record keeping - photos, sound recording, movies The eighth is the electronification of books - computers, the internet, printing on demand - (still in its infancy) - Other important contributions: 3 D drawing, number representations, math equations and algorithms - Information generation & information management by computers - New convergence: movies with subtitles, music videos, video games (quests), encyclopedias, multi-media I believe it is worthwhile to get a perspective: history, present, future - to identify major components, trends, issues - not as unbiased, scholarly study - but from an active, personal perspective of trying to create new paradigms - Almost like an update on McLuhan - active & passive books, video games, different user involvement & training I believe libraries have enlarged in scope, printed books, audio books, movies, CDs. We want more titles available, with shorter lag time. We want access to more historical and rare material, and we want to be able to search for more detail with less effort: search by content. -- The internet can be seen as a giant library. I hope that this book will be of interest not only to those involved in creating or producing electronic books, but also to those who are just interested in books. 1. To discuss and evaluate how to extend books with various computer related technologies 2. To look at the potential impact on record keeping, story telling and description, and instruction (inspiration, motivation, control) Basic premise 1: It all started with books books as part of individual intelligence Human intelligence and language is insufficient to deal with complex problems without external memory. A good analogy is a computer with a good, fast CPU and plenty on RAM etc. but no drives on which to write & read information. The kinds of problems that can be used with this kind of diskless computer are very limited (unless the diskspace is provided through a network connection). - Apprenticeship and other forms or imitative learning can deal with fairly complex activities, but is limited in the variety it can deal with. - Other creatures, such as dolphins and gorillas, may well have intelligence and language, but have not built complex civilizations. - Man had both intelligence and language for a long time, but only built a complex, city-based civilization in the last 2-3 thousand years, after the invention of reading, writing, and record keeping, i.e., encoding information in books. Basic premise 1a: Books are a man-made device, like a car Books have a main function: storing and transporting information both in location and theough time Books are based on skills to use them: reading, writing, etc. Books are based on technologies to produce them: Gutenberg, paper making, Books change over time with new enabling technologies - they become more effective & more efficient Electronics and computers are the most recent technologies - resulting a bewildering array of variants - movies, recorded sound, databases, programs - and are presenting exciting new opportunities for convergence and further development. Basic premise 2: "In the beginning was the word ..." Symbolic information representation allows simplification and classification to help manage complex problems Information is represented in a variety of forms: written language - text - probably the most common. Data, primarily in the form of numbers also go way back. Simplified geometric representations with lines and angles are quite ancient? Line drawings are even earlier than writing. Colour pictures, sound recordings, and movies are much more recent. We cannot yet properly represent in books are their equivalents - smells and some of the other senses (touch, taste, etc.) I believe that language is at the core of what we call "reality". I go one step further than Kant and believe that we filter our perceptions into a good story to make sense of what we perceive, and to select relevant and irrelevant components. I believe that we have some limited control over the stories which which we live our lives. I believe that it is difficult to change a story from within, but that it is easier to go to a different culture with a different language, learn a new language and new roles, and thus rebuilt core stories. ?- I believe that we have some central story structures that are used in various contexts. One of these has to do with chains of causation, evidence, accountability. This structure is used in courts of justice, science, and interpersonal accountability. Language predates books, but is likely to have changed significantly after books social communication persuasion, promises, lying -- but no "objective" description? -- since language expressions do not persist, only story tellers stories based on memory Julian Jaynes: consciousness only after the introduction of books? (his timing, my causative hypothesis) Basic premise 3: the book forces & strengthens dual reality: objects & events & the description duality arose in language before writing - but probably expanded after writing: investigate through whatever is known about language, thoughts, and culture of peoples who only received written form recently (often through missionaries translating the Bible - e.g., Kenneth Pike) Before books there was language use, story telling, socual communication, memory, persuasion, (possibly even lying) -- so there was the beginnings of duality: the physical world -- perceived, acted on, (contains hearing language sounds, speech) -- action men/women - act & react in physical world, use language for effect in context the symbolic world -- language stories, the symbolically expressed, oral traditions in poetry, play (Homer, Euristes?, ...) -- comtemplative men/women - "I think therefore I am", "The unexamined life is not worth living" -- orient life around symbolic world, "otherworldly" object (perceived, recognized) - description (reference, attribute, value) events, states actions - description / instruction Basic premise 4: Symbolic reality is more stable and persistent, easier to deal with, less complex Plato's ideal types, primary & secondary characteristics, body - soul, laws of nature the search for underlying "atomic" components and structure, the unified field theory - (the theory - fiction describes the "underlying" reality --- observations and experiments are full of error) evaluation - "the good" - symbolically encoded reality becomes "more real" than perceived reality new "correspondence" duality: take Bible literally - book and truth, newspaper reporting Basic premise 5: Books are essential for managing complexity If you take away books, civilization as we know it would collapse banking - money, account books passports, tax records, health records Compare ease of use of books: scrolls vs paginated; phonetic, syllabic & other scripts; literacy - reading & writing %, working vocabulary; Basic premise 5: Books can be interactive Books can be involved in flowing information in a number of directions. The most common structure is like an interview, where the author asks questions (in print) and the respondent writes responses. Generally the sequence of questions is organized, and the responses might be constrained by the space available or by the multiple choice options provided. Examination booklets - set a problem and then have a place for recoding the solution, the student response Questionnaire - can have long questions and long answers - or prompts with multiple choice responses, scales, etc. Forms - mostly short questions and answers Computer interfaces, first like forms or questionnaires, now more graphical Science is based on books: incremental learning and discovery with public reporting of theories and results Basic premise 6: Language entities beyond speech mathematical equations & symbols tables of numbers, esp. multi-dimensional long lists (hard to remember, recite) Basic premise 7: Non language entities in books maps - map drawing, map reading 3 D drawings, architectural plans, wire frame representations charts: Gantt, etc. - project management Basic premise 8: more people deal with paper than with physical action Ideal stereotypes are still physical action oriented: athletes, actors direct presentation, language, speech skills are important along with physical size & presence writers, computer nerds, editors, ... not nearly as visible (more so in less advanced? societies...) Conjectures Paintings have gone more and more toward symbolic reality movies are going toward symbolic representation away from selectively recording perceived reality: special effects, animation, make up and distortions Virtual reality: manipulate perceptions to simulate imagined alternate realities Language is adapted to help us deal with more and more symbolic complexity: - conjecture, supposition (subjunctive) - only symbolic, no correspondence established, e.g., dragons - hypothetical, counterfactual - symbolic, known (assumed) that there is no correspondence (can't be ..) - prediction - no current but future correspondence - future tense - lie, make believe - hypothetical, counterfactual - make other person believe that there is a correspondence Definition of book as used here I have a very inclusive definition of book, linked both to content and usage. The content should be a symbolic representation, and the usage should be for record keeping (descriptive), instructional, or fictitious (hypothetical). Questions: what, by whom, for whom, why Core functionality Time binding: information persists beyond normal memory Information preservation with accuracy: reliable records, codification of laws, preservation of sacred texts Information sharing: Efficient mode of conveying and distributing information - copies, transport Public books, secret books, machine readable books Core usage Record keeping - accounting - company books Instruction - codification of laws - how to & educational - religious & inspirational Story telling, reporting, persuading, entertaining letters - portable minibooks - direct communication between two parties - at a distance and over time Boundaries - exclusion Critical to my concept of a book is that the information persists without the presence of a human. Pictures on walls of caves are included, but mime and story telling is not. Vinyl records and old 8mm home movies are included, but singing and theatre performances are not. Also critical to my concept of a book is that there is an information source, and that there is the intention to record the information. Also critical to my concept of a book is that there is an information receiver with the intention to receive information. Less critical is the form of symbolic representation, the duality and correspondence between "reality" and "representation in the book". Movies and audio recordings are interesting questions - in contrast with theatre performances and recitals - I believe they parallel the distinction between books and story telling. Documentary movies tend to be edited to archieve a purposeful "balanced?" represetation. "Live" TV journalism raises further questions. Core concepts - more explicitly Symbolic representation - dual reality - on external media allowing writing (drawing) by author allowing reading (interpreting) - by author, others record on media persisting over time persistence of meaning (interpretation) - relatively invariant over readers, time Time binding - invariant over time (persistence) short term memory - I can't remember telephone numbers without making a note - I need a shopping list - I need paper to do additions, multiplications of larger numbers - I am lost without my schedule book and the "to do" list - I draw directions to find places self-definition - diary entries - biographical notes, autobiography allows us to have a less momentary view of self agreements, commitments, contracts written, signed, dated statements have an independent, external reality Distribution to people who were not there (persistence unchanged over space, people) holy writings, more than missionaries and preachers define modern religious movements codification of law for modern states record keeping, contracts, accounts for modern trade Books that write themselves, read other books A computer can process and interpret sensor data and report the data into a database. This is equivalent to a journalistic report on an event or a series of events. A.I. program were written years ago which read and extract information from text. My own Ph.D. involved a program reading and interpreting a questionnaire, both task instructions and descriptions of people. Another program scanned and extracted information from the news wires. This kind of approach, not just reading and interpreting data but also reading and interpreting text, is still quite limited, but there are more instances.