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Sunday, September 25, 2005

Beyond hypertext

Stevan Harnad, From Hypertext to Hyperloquy, a preprint.
Abstract: The human mind is capable of something even better than hypertext: “hyperloquy.” Hypertext was the idea that texts and parts of texts could be linked to one another in the online medium. It led to the miracle of the worldwide web, but there is still something static about a hyperlinked textual world. Something is missing that comes close to the essence of the human capacity for thought, language, and colloquy: Quote/commentary brings the text alive and puts one into public dialogue with the author. Its interactive flavor -- plus the publicly visible and accessible nature of the interaction, with the everpresent possibility for any other skyreader to join in the skywritten quote/commentary – engage the ancient oral interactive powers for which our brains were specifically adapted in ways that neither the oral nor the written medium has ever before been able to engage: skywriting at the speed of thought, with near real-time interactions between not only minds and minds, but minds and texts: hyperloquy.