Introduction
2 blurring heroism – invoking the true nature of things
2.1 heroic normativity
2.2 carrying complexity
2.3 wor(l)ding through wor(l)ding
3 disrupting linearity
3.1 within its connections
3.2 associative trails
3.3 augmenting thought
3.4 beyond ordinary text
3.5 weaving worlds
3.6 enter URL
conclusion

introduction soft encyclopedia is a conceptual attempt to investigate the web’s intrinsic network nature as a narrative tool. By exploring the intentions and thoughts of the web’s pioneers, the work examines the inherent qualities of hypertext as non-sequential and non-linear structures. These properties are juxtaposed with the conventional information and knowledge practices that subliminally shape our perception and belief systems. What science has obscured with its linear and heroic conception is the very essence of all things: “chaos, complexity, connectionism.”1꩜(Sadie Plant: Zeros and Ones. Digital Women + the new Technolculture, Fourth Estate, London 1998, p. 164). By claiming hypertext as the antidote to a causal and alienating system of storytelling, soft encyclopedia enables connections in between links that at first seemed distant. It sparks associative thinking and opens up the possibility to constantly (re)link and (re)shape truths. As a different kind of narrative, as a container “[...] holding things in a particular, powerful relation to one another and to us.” 2꩜(Ursula K. Le Guin: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ignota Books, London 2019, p. 41) In the following research, I will first concentrate on a rather enclosing than excluding manner of telling. A way of narrating that establishes conscious connections between things, blurring heroism to enclose us within the entanglement of the world. The subsequent part addresses the concept of inter-relational structures within hypertext, where conclusions are drawn from the ideas that preceded the World Wide Web. 2 blurring heroism – invoking the true nature of things This chapter takes a critical look at the traditional narratives of history and their impact on the present, in order to allow and highlight different perspectives. The ideas discussed in the chapter provide a pathway for using stories to create connections and reflect complexity. 2.1 heroic normativity As we look at what we have been taught throughout the western history, we find ourselves confronted with a narrative that tells stories of our ancient heroes in imposing glory. A supposedly consistent linear history of victories, where violence and power appear to be the core to the plot. A story that evolves through the hero’s endeavours –“The killer story.” 3꩜(Ursula K. Le Guin: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ignota Books, London 2019, p. 40) as Ursula Le Guin aptly described it in her essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction from 1986, questions precisely the way of passing on our past from generation to generation. “[...] [C]ulture was explained as originating from and elaborating upon the use of long, hard objects for sticking, bashing and killing.” – Ursula K. Le Guin 4꩜(Ursula K. Le Guin: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ignota Books, London 2019, p. 38) The glorious utopia-past, sold to us as growth and progress-driven, is forced into our perception of reality through the hero that reinforces the narrative. This narrative portrays men as the sole protagonists; the sole architects of the world while his surroundings either serve as a resource or as obstacles in his paths.5꩜ (cf. Donna J. Haraway: “Carrier Bags for Worlding” conference at Index Art Book Fair, kurimanzutto Mexico 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1qwFhS45_c (Retrieved April 17, 2024)) What shadows does this type of narrative cast? If, as described by Le Guin, the weapon becomes the crucial aspect of the narrative 6꩜ (cf. Ursula K. Le Guin: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ignota Books, London 2019, p. 38), the surrounding becomes something to be overcome.7꩜ (cf. Donna J. Haraway: “Carrier Bags for Worlding” conference at Index Art Book Fair, kurimanzutto Mexico 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1qwFhS45_c (Retrieved April 17, 2024) ) The weapon metaphorically creates distance from everything else: to ourselves, to others and to nature. And while “[m]an conquers earth, space, aliens, death, the future, etc.”8꩜ (Ursula K. Le Guin: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ignota Books, London 2019, p. 43) , the influence of his actions will persist reflected in our values and understanding of the world. As it might have come clear, that history of humanity has always been and continues to be an endless linear narrative of men explaining the world defined on him to himself and “swallowing every actor ad infinitum until there is nothing.”9꩜ (Gizem Oktay: “A Thinking Tool for COVID-19 and Beyond: Liminality”, Medium, 2020, https://medium.com/a-liminal-space/a-thinking-tool-for-covid-19-and-beyond-liminality-492a432f0ce1#c728 (Retrieved April 10, 2024)) His science has described our environment from a reductionist perspective, where “everything in the universe, no matter how complex, mysterious, or spiritual it might seem, can theoretically be reduced to a series of ‘nothing but’ descriptions: nothing but atoms, nothing but neurons, nothing but genes.”10꩜ (Gizem Oktay: “A Thinking Tool for COVID-19 and Beyond: Liminality”, Medium, 2020, https://medium.com/a-liminal-space/a-thinking-tool-for-covid-19-and-beyond-liminality-492a432f0ce1#c728 (Retrieved April 10, 2024)) This reductionism results from placing human consciousness at the top of hierarchy to simplify and separate everything else. However, contrary to this notion, acknowledging ambiguity can blur these established boundaries.11꩜ (cf. Gizem Oktay: “A Thinking Tool for COVID-19 and Beyond: Liminality”, Medium, 2020, https://medium.com/a-liminal-space/a-thinking-tool-for-covid-19-and-beyond-liminality-492a432f0ce1#c728 (Retrieved April 10, 2024)) “Copernicus told us that the earth was not the center. Darwin told us that man is not the center. If we listened to the anthropologists we might hear them telling us, with appropriate indirectness, that the White West is not the center.”– Ursula Le Guin 12꩜ (Ursula K. Le Guin: “A Non-Euclidean View of California as a Cold Place to Be”, in: Grove Press (Ed.): Dancing at the edge of the world. Thoughts on words, women, places, New York 2018 https://monoskop.org/media/text/le_guin_1989_dancing_at_the_edge_of_the_world/#c11 (Retrieved April 03, 2024)) 2.2 carrying complexity Contrasting the well known story of the hero, Ursula Le Guin points to the fact that “before the tool that forces energy outward, we made the tool that brings energy home.”13꩜(Ursula K. Le Guin: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ignota Books, London 2019, p. 38) Referencing the evolutionary theory Woman‘s Creation – Sexual Evolution and the Shaping of Society by the feminist Elisabeth Fischer, who presented the baby sling and the carrier bag as the most important technical invention in evolutionary progression: “for making it possible to establish a human community, for making it possible to travel, for making it possible to share.”14꩜ (Donna J. Haraway: “Carrier Bags for Worlding” conference at Index Art Book Fair, kurimanzutto Mexico 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1qwFhS45_c (Retrieved am April 17, 2024)) A theory that was always thought of as women’s fantasy and not at all a piece of science. But what if one embraces this shift in perspective, sees the container as the most important tool of human history and uses the bag as a metaphor? As an empty vessel that has the ability to contain things, as a thing that collects things, as a thing/place that holds things together, as a thing that relates things, as a thing that provides space, as a thing that carries things, as a thing from which things can be shared with others. And yet the thing can be anything. The carrier bag is not only a method to rupture ingrained understandings of human existence; it is also a method to bring things in different relations, a method of re-stor(e)y-ing, and a method of telling (her)story. Le Guin provides us with a groundwork to shift perspectives and values towards what we have established distance from. Her thoughts highlight the interconnectedness of things; they help us to think with and to stay with the complexity of natural cultural multispecies entanglement on Earth 15꩜(cf. Donna J. Haraway: “Carrier Bags for Worlding” conference at Index Art Book Fair, kurimanzutto Mexico 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1qwFhS45_c (Retrieved am April 17, 2024)), as Donna Haraway described it in her talk Carrier Bags for Worlding. Le Guin leads us out of this mindset of human exceptionalism and conquest narratives that objectify everything else than the human self and simultaneously undermine the other’s values. She urges us to tell “the other story, the untold one, the life story,”16꩜ (Ursula K. Le Guin: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ignota Books, London 2019, p. 40) which offers the possibility to expand and include much more. Telling the story of the living embodies the fact that everything exists and acts in a continuous and active process. It is a relational network “full of beginnings without ends, of initiations, of losses, of transformations and translations, and far more tricks than conflicts.”17꩜ (Ursula K. Le Guin: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ignota Books, London 2019, p. 42) The live story considers the whole system in a steady flow, whereas the story of the hero (the killer story) starts one-sided and ends one-sided. The other story implies the true name of things – as a language that allows us to speak more truthfully. 2.3 wor(l)ding through wor(l)ding People rely on the stories rich in ancient wisdom to be able to interpret the present and envisage the future, to be able to relate to the world and to establish values and insights. Stories are crucial to the way we look at things. What truly matters is not merely the written, spoken, or contemplated word itself, but rather what is in between, that ties the words together. I propose to define a word as a web of things, that holds something(s) else. A word contains an entire network of relationships, and when we place the word in a different context, new connections emerge. The word always has an impact and generates meanings and truths. As Le Guin would describe it: “Words hold things. They bear meanings. […] [A word is a] bundle, holding things in a particular, powerful relation to one another and to us.”18꩜ (Ursula K. Le Guin: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ignota Books, London 2019, p. 41) The words we speak with will influence the thoughts we think with and the values that are implied to this language.

“It matters what matters we use to think other matters with; it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, what descriptions describe descriptions, what ties tie ties. It matters what worlds make worlds, what worlds make stories.” – Donna Haraway 19꩜ (Donna J. Haraway: Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Duke Univerity Press, Durham and London 2016, p. 12)

Can we put the previously described linear hierarchical thinking and the accompanying displaced world view of man as the cause for human-made catastrophes? Following the ideas that Donna Haraway proposes in her book Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Chthulucene: In critique of the terms Anthropocene and Capitalocene, which describe profound geological and biological transformations caused by humans resp. shaped by capitalism, Donna Haraway proposes another term: Chthulucene (from Greek khthôn, meaning earthbound being). She aims to convey that in this drama, the human is not the sole important actor to consider; rather, it is the human with the Earth and all its biotic and abiotic powers as the main acting alliance. This inclusive term is intended to open up new perspectives to change the story that was, is, and will be. cf. Donna J. Haraway: Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Duke Univerity Press, Durham and London 2016, p. 55) she states that we have lost sight of the profound interdependence of the world. Everything exists within this complex bundle – the netbag – whose entanglement and interconnectedness holds things together. She claims a radical alternative conception of the world made up of multispecies stories and alternative practices to navigate the challenges of the Anthropocene. To change the way of being within a living and dying sympoiesis: “To think-with is to stay with the natural cultural multispecies trouble on earth.”20꩜ (Donna J. Haraway: Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Duke Univerity Press, Durham and London 2016, p. 40) Haraway calls on us to make kin with the companion species on Earth.21꩜ (cf. Donna J. Haraway: Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Duke Univerity Press, Durham and London 2016, p. 40) Thinking with, within and in between is to enclose rather than to exclude. Speaking with, within and in between is to enclose rather than to exclude. Wor(l)ding (worlding: the gerund of “world”. A term often used by Donna Haraway in her writing. In her conception, worlding can be described as the active co-engagement with materiality and the contexts of existence — an unfinished, always-in-motion, inclusive multispecies being-with and interacting in the world. cf. Helen Palmer and Vicky Hunter: “Worlding”, New Materialism, 2018 https://newmaterialism.eu/almanac/w/worlding.html (Retrieved May 24, 2024)) with, within and in between is to enclose rather than to exclude. This could lead us to reconfigure our relations with the Earth and its multispecies alliance. To reflect on what indigenous knowledge has always encompassed: A language of animacy that includes everything, considering the world and all it contains as a stable, interconnected system that grows and diminishes together, by recognizing the importance of the connections. All of this enables perspectives that could build a more liveable future.22꩜ (cf. Donna J. Haraway: Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Duke Univerity Press, Durham and London 2016, p. 117-119) In conclusion, thinking in causal sequences with a beginning and end diminishes the scope to interpret and contextualize everything else that resides in the messy bag of the story. And the language that speaks this wor(l)d into being is the heart of its culture, that colonizes thoughts, values, and the way we see the world. What would happen if, despite the absence of any plausible causal links, one were to bring distant things into relation?

Would we then see a greater connection? Could this thinking give a broader view of the world? These are of course big questions, but could be concluded with: Resisting linearity encompasses ambiguity, abstraction and association that evokes creativity. This new way of weaving narratives could be found within the systematics of hypertext, a document interlinking multiple things, depending on individual navigation through the web of connections. This is like reading several books at the same time. Reading these multiple stories simultaneously and intermittently, with their “ideas bouncing off each other, simmering, and reproducing in some odd way,”23꩜ (Octavia Butler and Samuel Delany: “The Value of Literacy”, MIT Media in Transition Project, 1998 https://www.blackhistory.mit.edu/archive/transcript-octavia-butler-and-samuel-delany-1998 (Retrieved May 25, 2024)) allows new perceptions and unforeseen connections to arise, and distant ideas to emerge that wouldn’t appear by simply reading one book at a time.24꩜ (cf. Octavia Butler and Samuel Delany: “The Value of Literacy”, MIT Media in Transition Project, 1998 https://www.blackhistory.mit.edu/archive/transcript-octavia-butler-and-samuel-delany-1998 (Retrieved May 25, 2024)) This is how Octavia Butler described her practice as a writer in an interview in 1998. Despite not knowing the concept of computed hypertext at the time, she realized: “So, I guess, in that way, I’m using a kind of primitive hypertext.” – Octavia Butler 25꩜ (Octavia Butler and Samuel Delany: “The Value of Literacy”, MIT Media in Transition Project, 1998 https://www.blackhistory.mit.edu/archive/transcript-octavia-butler-and-samuel-delany-1998 (Retrieved May 25, 2024)) 3 disrupting linearity Words written or spoken carry encoded meanings and form relations when they are joined together. Considering the smallest unit of a word, the letter only becomes a word by stringing together accompanying letters; a word only forms a sentence by combining other words, and meaning only arises through the composition of sentences. Similarly, it is within the combination of characters that encodes meaning to the computed system.26꩜ (cf. Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 12-13) The following chapter outlines the ideas of the pioneers of hypertext and discusses their thoughts on networked information systems. 3.1 within its connections “In an extreme view, the world can be seen as only connections, nothing else,”27꩜ (Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 12) determines Tim Berners-Lee in his book Weaving the Web – The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by its Inventor,  where he gives an insightful grasp of his research on the development of networked systems. In an extreme view, Berners-Lee translated this philosophy into a digital realm, a space that only exists through its connections, through the way information is related to each other –a global networked hypertext system. By entering a URL, the user navigates a space where things are held “in a particular, powerful relation to one another and to us.”28꩜ (Ursula K. Le Guin: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ignota Books, London 2019, p. 41) as a place “without central points, organizing principles, [and] hierarchies.”29꩜ (Sadie Plant: Zeros and Ones. Digital Women + the new Technolculture, Fourth Estate, London 1998, p. 10) What were the ideas and motivations of the scientists who wanted to rethink and restructure traditional knowledge and information systems? The following section looks at the concepts that led to the emergence of hypertext and eventually the World Wide Web.

3.2 associative trails By reflecting on the structures of scientific research Vannevar Bush acknowledged in his essay As We May Think that the human brain “operates by association”30꩜ (Vannevar Bush: “As We May Think”, in: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 176, No. 1, July 1945, p. 121) rather than by static librarian index rules, which to him seemed like an alienating process of compiling sources. Bush described the process of researching resources in a physical library as disturbing to the mind. To be able to locate related documents or topics of interest, the reader had to “emerge from the system and re-enter on a new path”31꩜ (Vannevar Bush: “As We May Think”, in: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 176, No. 1, July 1945, p. 121) to find a next book.32꩜ (cf. Vannevar Bush: “As We May Think”, in: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 176, No. 1, July 1945, p. 121) Bush suggests a hypothetical machine called memex (memory expansion concept, a microfilm-based browsing machine), envisioned as “[…] an enlarged intimate supplement to [the individual’s] memory.”33꩜ (Vannevar Bush: “As We May Think”, in: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 176, No. 1, July 1945, p. 121) A system that would allow the user to follow associative trails through and between different documents led by their interest to device new ideas. Accompanying these individual trails, the user would also be given the possibility to add marginal notes and comments and to exchange one’s personal memex with other users. An associative index system that makes pathways visible, where links would be two-directional (an incoming and outreaching connection) and built solely by its users.34꩜ (cf. Vannevar Bush: “As We May Think”, in: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 176, No. 1, July 1945, p. 112-124)
~~ image ~~
Conceptual sketch of the memex system by Vannevar Bush. Image source: Vannevar Bush: “As We May Think”, in: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 176, No. 1, July 1945, P. 123. https://filiph.net/text/memex-is-already-here,-it%27s-just-not-evenly-distributed.html (Retrieved May 12, 2024) The drawing shows a conventional desk with two translucent viewing screens side by side, projecting the retrieved files. The files are stored on microfilm cards and accessed by a mechanism controlled through a keyboard and a set of buttons. On the left side, there is a transparent plate that can be used for notes and annotations.
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“Thus [...] [the user] goes, building a trail of many items. Occasionally he inserts a comment of his own, either linking it to the main trail or joining it by a side trail to a particular item… Thus he builds a trail of his interest through the maze of material available to him.” – Vannevar Bush 35꩜ (Vannevar Bush: “As We May Think”, in: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 176, No. 1, July 1945, p. 123)

Through the conceptual outlining of this fictional instrument, Bush emphasizes the creative nature of thought processes and their associative potentials. Entangled trails of related material form an intimate extension of the mind, weaving through thoughts and shaping significance. Within this intricate web of connections, links don‘t merely convey paths; they embody layers of understanding, reflective of individual conceptions and ideas. Through juxtaposed references (shown in the image), the links become readable bidirectional, giving the possibility to read forward and in reverse. But what if this concept is expanded further? Could links exist that traverse multiple dimensions? How might they manifest? 3.3 augmenting thought
~~ image ~~
Screen shot from the video documentation of “The Mother of All Demos” at the Association for Computing Machinery / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (ACM/IEEE) — Computer Society‘s Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, by Douglas Engelbart, domstrating the NLS (oN-Line System). Image source: Doug Engelbart Institute https://dougengelbart.org/content/view/276/ (Retrieved May 13, 2024)
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In 1968, Douglas Engelbart demonstrated a prototype of the first functional interactive hypertext system called NLS (oN-Line System). Its purpose was not to replace but to augment human abilities. By utilizing the system‘s own features, Engelbart showcased the functions of the NLS system through a live video broadcast (multi-channel video transmission in the conference room), which seemed both then and now like a science fiction revelation, earning it the title of The Mother of All Demos.36꩜ (cf. Alex Wright: Cataloging the World. Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age, Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford 2014, p. 258-260) Engelbart and his team considered the NLS as an experimental laboratory to explore their ideas in navigating information. Through a graphical interface, the user could jump directly to a file deep in a particular document or unfold further information in vertical columns (collapsible views of information, shown in the screen shot), embedded in the link. Links were not labelled in a special way (hidden links), allowing each element to be potentially addressable.37꩜ (cf. Douglas C. Engelbart: “The Click Heard Round The World”, in: Wired, 2004 https://www.wired.com/2004/01/mouse/ (Retrieved May 13 2024) )

“Once something is digital it becomes dynamic and can be manipulated in so many ways. There is no reason you have to use just one portrayal.” – Douglas Engelbart 38꩜ (Douglas C. Engelbart: “The Click Heard Round The World”, in: Wired, 2004 https://www.wired.com/2004/01/mouse/ (Retrieved May 13, 2024) )

Engelbart identified the fundamental evolutionary basics that are the drive to augment human capabilities, such as language, artefacts (physical gadgets) and methodology. He understood that the world exceeded the simplistic confines of the linear models prevalent at the time. The goal was to augment, not to replace, these attributes by a computer-assisted system in order to induce progress in society. Creating an environment that better resembles the complexity of human thinking through personalised information structures and collaborative working that promotes creativity.39꩜ (Douglas C. Engelbart: “Evolving the Organization of the Future: A Point of View”, in: Ablex Publications Corporation (Ed.): Emerging Office Systems, Norwood, NJ 1980, p. 297-308) The most important aspect of the NLS was to equip people with various tools to organize complex information structures and thoughts. Engelbart and his team also placed great emphasis on augmenting the work of a group of people with video and audio conferencing.40꩜ (cf. Alex Wright: “The Web That Wasn‘t” presentation at Google TechTalks, 2007 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72nfrhXroo8&t=2416s (Retrieved May 17, 2024)) What stands out to me here is Engelbart‘s understanding of the transition of thoughts into not physical (writing on paper), but another external form of existence – establishing a digital framing of thoughts. Another interesting idea is to decide not to mark links in any way, even to hide them. Whereas in today’s web, a link is labeled with a blue underline by default. Would it be possible to erase even more hierarchies in reading hypertext by eliminating any forms of labels? 3.4 beyond ordinary text Inspired by Bush’s idea of associative trails, Ted Nelson realized that “[h]uman ideas, science, scholarships and language are constantly collapsing and unfolding,”41꩜ (Theodor Holm Nelson: “Complex information processing: a file structure for the complex, the changing and the indeterminate”, in: Association for Computing Machinery (Hg.): Proceedings of the 1965 20th National Conference, New York 1965, p. 96-97) and their units must be seen as “a bundle of relationships”42꩜ (Theodor Holm Nelson: “Complex information processing: a file structure for the complex, the changing and the indeterminate”, in: Association for Computing Machinery (Hg.): Proceedings of the 1965 20th National Conference, New York 1965, p. 97). These systems are too complex and dynamic to be managed as consistent fixed structures. What is logical today could become contradictory tomorrow. He figured that these observations should be incorporated into a supporting computerized information system, which he outlined as a fictional system (ELF- Evolutionary List File) in his academic paper Complex Information Processing: A File Structure for the Complex, The Changing and the Indeterminate in 1965, where he first coined the term hypertext. “Let me introduce the word 'hypertext'***** to mean a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper. […] Such a system could grow indefinitely, gradually including more and more of the world‘s written knowledge. […] its internal file structure would have to be built to accept growth, change and complex informational arrangements.” – Ted Nelson 43꩜ (Theodor Holm Nelson: “Complex information processing: a file structure for the complex, the changing and the indeterminate”, in: Association for Computing Machinery (Hg.): Proceedings of the 1965 20th National Conference, New York 1965, p. 96)
~~ image ~~
Illustration of an hypothetical linked system. Image source: Theodor Holm Nelson: “Complex information processing: a file structure for the complex, the changing and the indeterminate”, in: Association for Computing Machinery (Ed.): Proceedings of the 1965 20th National Conference, New York 1965, p. 100 The illustration shows an exemplary linked system made by a historian while writing a book, showing the possible structural thinking and complexity of the writing process. In this scheme a thin line between lists indicates that some links exist; a solid line indicates that the entries are the same.
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Traditional literature has taught us a sequential way of writing, reading, thinking, and speaking; everything seems to fundamentally unfold in a series of words. However, this approach more likely leads to complex connections being separated, omitted, or shortened, imposing an alienating logic of the correlations on the reader.44꩜ (cf. Theodor Holm Nelson: Literary Machines Edition 87.1. The Report On, and Of, Project Xanadu Concerning Word Processing, Electronic Publishing, Hypertext, Thinkertoys, Tomorrow‘s Intellectual Revolution, and Certain Other Topics Including Knowledge, Education and Freedom (1981), Published by the author, 1987, p. 46-50 (1/14 - 1/19)) “The structure of ideas is never sequential.” – Ted Nelson 45꩜ (Theodor Holm Nelson: Literary Machines Edition 87.1. The Report On, and Of, Project Xanadu Concerning Word Processing, Electronic Publishing, Hypertext, Thinkertoys, Tomorrow‘s Intellectual Revolution, and Certain Other Topics Including Knowledge, Education and Freedom (1981), Published by the author, 1987, p. 48 (1/16)) Hypertext should transcend the limitations of paper and surpass its dictated hierarchical linear structure. The prefix hyper suggests something that goes beyond ordinary text, indicating the hyperspace around it. Nelson envisioned such a system would create a more natural thinking environment for the user, providing readers with greater freedom to explore associations, contextualise information, and expand their intellectual expression.46꩜ (cf. Theodor Holm Nelson: Literary Machines Edition 87.1. The Report On, and Of, Project Xanadu Concerning Word Processing, Electronic Publishing, Hypertext, Thinkertoys, Tomorrow‘s Intellectual Revolution, and Certain Other Topics Including Knowledge, Education and Freedom (1981), Published by the author, 1987, p. 21 (0/3)) “By ‘hypertext’ I mean non-sequential writing-text that branches and allows choices to the reader, best read at an interactive screen. […] [It is a] series of text chunks connected by links which offer the reader different pathways.” – Ted Nelson 47꩜ (Theodor Holm Nelson: Literary Machines Edition 87.1. The Report On, and Of, Project Xanadu Concerning Word Processing, Electronic Publishing, Hypertext, Thinkertoys, Tomorrow‘s Intellectual Revolution, and Certain Other Topics Including Knowledge, Education and Freedom (1981), Published by the author, 1987, p. 20 (0/2))
To implement his ideal vision within a practical framework, Nelson proposed a project called Xanadu in his self-published book Dream Machines in 1981. Intended to be a universal, accessible networked hypertext repository, it remains an unfulfilled vaporware to this day — a utopian vision, with many intriguing concepts.48꩜ (cf. Alex Wright: Cataloging the World. Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age, Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford 2014, p. 264)
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Screen shot of the latest Xanadu prototype interface. Image source: https://xanadu.com/xanademos/MoeJusteOrigins.html (Retrieved May 19, 2024) Text marked in colour indicates the original text of a cited source embedded directly in the main document, known as transclusion. The referenced sources are displayed as companion pages next to the main text and can also be viewed.
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“THE XANADU* PARADIGM
A Piece of Software that Proposes
A New Era of Computers,
A New Form of Instant Literature
And a Whole New World”
49꩜ (Theodor Holm Nelson: THE XANADU* PARADIGM, 1987 https://archive.org/details/xanaduparadigm00tedn/page/n1/mode/2up (Retrieved May 17 2024))

“Such a system will represent at last the true structure of information (rather than Procrustean mappings of it), with all its intrinsic complexity and controversy, and provide a universal archival standard worthy of our heritage of freedom and pluralism.” – Ted Nelson 50꩜ ()Theodor Holm Nelson: Literary Machines Edition 87.1. The Report On, and Of, Project Xanadu Concerning Word Processing, Electronic Publishing, Hypertext, Thinkertoys, Tomorrow‘s Intellectual Revolution, and Certain Other Topics Including Knowledge, Education and Freedom (1981), Published by the author, 1987, p. 30 (0/12) Nelson envisioned a (hyper)space of interwoven references, modifiable by the individual user and traceable to all its original files, precursors, and references. Every linked piece of information would lead to its reference or source and vice-versa 51꩜ (cf. Theodor Holm Nelson: “Ted Nelson Demonstrates XanaduSpace” demonstration of XanaduSpace, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yLNGUeHapA (Retrieved May 17, 2024)), links would be two-way links, existing in reverse direction, as a threshold that can be entered both ways. If this principle were to be taken further, could there also be multi-directional links? Could there be multiple entrances or pathways leading to a link? Which path could then be considered the main path, or would there even be one? What effect would that have on reading habits? Ted Nelson offers a truly interesting and liberating way of thinking about information structures, granting the user authority and creativity in navigating these worlds of data, where pieces of information could be easily rearranged to alter their meaning based on their respective contexts. Additionally, within the Xanadu network, referencing information would be handled in a more direct manner. Pieces of text would be included in the referring text through transclusion (as shown in the screen shot), allowing the documents to be read as mutual citations and to maintain the true structure of the sources.52꩜ (cf. Theodor Holm Nelson: “Ted Nelson Demonstrates XanaduSpace” demonstration of XanaduSpace, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yLNGUeHapA (Retrieved May 17, 2024)) Throughout his investigation with the web, Nelson also considered the differences in the content of a document. He contemplated implementing differentiated types of interaction depending on the type of literature to counteract the web‘s rigid, square-like condition, where everything has to fit into a website.53꩜ (cf. Alex Wright: “The Web That Wasn‘t” presentation at Google TechTalks, 2007 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72nfrhXroo8&t=2343s (Retrieved May 17, 2024)) Ted Nelson envisioned this vast, cross-linked space of material and ideas, encompassing and consisting of all available human knowledge, combined within one system, forming the Docuverse.54꩜ (cf. Theodor Holm Nelson: Literary Machines Edition 87.1. The Report On, and Of, Project Xanadu Concerning Word Processing, Electronic Publishing, Hypertext, Thinkertoys, Tomorrow‘s Intellectual Revolution, and Certain Other Topics Including Knowledge, Education and Freedom (1981), Published by the author, 1987, p. 139-140 (2/53 - 2/54)) 3.5 weaving worlds During his research phase at CERN, Tim Berners-Lee went one step further than his predecessors. His vision of decentralising hypertext documents evolved into the World Wide Web, linking into a single network hosted on the wired infrastructure of the Internet and accessible on any computer through a browser.55꩜ (cf. Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 7-23) Berners-Lee envisioned a system where everything could potentially be connected with anything. Within such a dynamic system, he saw the potential to overcome the limiting constraints of traditional hierarchical structures, solving one problem after another. What interested him most about the idea of a global network was “that computers could become much more powerful if they could be programmed to link otherwise unconnected information.”56꩜ (Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 4) He saw the potential for computers to assist in linking random bits of data to uncover other truths and new ways of seeing the world. Similar to the intuitive linking of external influences with a specific situation, which are recalled by the brain as soon as one is exposed to the link/trigger again. The mind can thus create connections that are not actually plausible, but have been experienced and remembered in this way.57꩜ (cf. Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 1-6) His vision for the web was to enhance the individual’s analytical capabilities, but especially their creative abilities, by enabling them to build intuitive links while browsing the web. Applying this to a broader and more diverse group of people this could evolve into a wide web of connections as an even larger intuitive brain of dreamed-up associations, sudden discoveries, and linked paths of understanding. According to Berners-Lee, the web could be the source of social change through collective action. He sees each individual as an important and active member of the web community who, by linking thoughts and “half-formed idea[s]”58꩜ (Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 201), enables discoveries for others, thereby helping the group become wiser.59꩜ (cf. Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 199-204)

“Perhaps that late-night surfing is not such a waste of time after all: It is just the Web dreaming.” – Tim Berners-Lee 60꩜ (Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 202)

Tim Berners-Lee dreamed of the computer becoming this unconstrained space of freedom for the human mind. A hyperspace, that could foster a certain “collective intuition”61꩜ (Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 206) and “intercreativity” 62꩜ (Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 206) , challenging truths adaptively and democratically to lead progress rather than creating change out of conflict.63꩜ (cf. Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 206-207)
Needless to say, Berners-Lee was always aware of the potential side effects of the web. Yet, in the spirit of a founder, he was and still is building his ideas upon his visionary utopian dream. 3.6 enter URL

“Hypertext would be most powerful if it could conceivably point to absolutely anything. Every node, document–whatever it was called–would be fundamentally equivalent in some way. Each would have an address by which it could be referenced. They would all exist together in the same space–the information space.” – Tim Berners-Lee 64꩜ (Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 16)

To create the global information space, Berners-Lee needed to enable computers to communicate with each other. All that was needed were some basic rules and a shift in perspective. Because, according to Berners-Lee, people seemed not fully aware of the fact that, “[t]he web was not a physical 'thing' that existed in a certain 'place'. It was a 'space' in which information could exist.”65꩜ (Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 36) A hypertext document would be transferred over the Internet using HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), one of several protocols, and made readable by a browser through HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) to display the content. To make each document accessible, Berners-Lee developed the idea of giving each one a specific address, a URL (Uniform Resource Locator).66꩜ (cf. Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 35-41)

http://www.soft-encyclopedia.net/doc1/doc2/doc3
\_1_/ \_________2__________/ \_____3_____/
_1 protocol_ ___2 domain____ ____3 path_____

The URL contained everything the browser needed to know: the method the browser uses to retrieve the document (http://), which web server to request (www.soft-encyclopedia.net), and the name of the specific document within the server (/doc3).67꩜ (cf. Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 35-41) And “[t]here might be hundreds [of paths], each with a different name after the slash,”68꩜ (Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 36) indicating the path to take within the document to access the desired file. In his book, Berners-Lee describes the web as a space in which information exists and is made accessible to individuals. What was necessary for this was for people to make information available by posting them on a server. Berners-Lee’s vision was that everyone could publish, read, and edit resources by using a browser/editor that accessed the desired file on a server through a specific URL.69꩜ (cf. Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, HarperBusiness, New York 1999, p. 37-38) It becomes clear that Berners-Lee’s vision for the web embodies the desire for collective change by embracing multiplicity. Equipped with an awareness of relationships and interconnectedness, knowledge would not be perceived as isolated facts, but rather originating from their linkages and as something that needs to be shared, lived, embodied, and used. conclusion Knowledge that was once encapsulated in written works, created by an author, authorised, and authoritative claimed its own truth 70꩜ (cf. Sadie Plant: Zeros and Ones. Digital Women + the new Technolculture, Fourth Estate, London 1998, p. 9), while its margins were at risk of being cut off. Today represented by “digital machines [...] [weaving] new networks from what were once isolated words” 71꩜ (Sadie Plant: Zeros and Ones. Digital Women + the new Technolculture, Fourth Estate, London 1998, p. 11) to form a new shape of a multi-linear world. George Landow argues in his book Hypertext. The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology that “[...] we must abandon conceptual systems founded upon ideas of center, margins, hierarchy, and linearity and replace them with ones of multi linearity, nodes, links and networks.”72꩜ (George Landow: Hypertext. The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London 1992, p. 2) Translating hypertext into existence was a way to expand the margins of linear literature and centralized knowledge to become a linked event and a browsable story. It encapsulates the quality of the human ideation and association process by assisting in structuring and restructuring thoughts and information. In this way, it fosters creativity, opens up new perspectives, and creates truths that previously seemed faint to alter the course of reality. The World Wide Web emerged from the belief that knowledge should be freely accessible to all, a self-regulated and self-organized information spaces, a non-space of experience, a seemingly new world accessible by disembodied consciousnesses and existing behind our computer screens.73꩜ (Tilman Baumgärtel: “II.Programme und Manifeste.Einleitung”, in: Reclam (Ed.): Texte zur Theorie des Internets, Ditzingen 2017, p. 56) Where the interests and associations of the reader set the structure of meaning in this “infinite re-centerable system.”74꩜ (George Landow: Hypertext 3.0. Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2006, p. 11) The user gains authority as a reader and writer. “Using the Net quickly became a matter of surfing, a channel­ hopping mode facilitated and demanded by information which is no longer bound together in linear texts or library classifica­tions, but instead needs to be laterally traversed.” – Sadie Plant 75꩜ (Sadie Plant: Zeros and Ones. Digital Women + the new Technolculture, Fourth Estate, London 1998, p. 46) Conceived as the dawn of a new world order by its creators, the web arose from the same systematic essence inherent to the fabric of existence – as a network of connections and interdependencies. It could be argued that the computer rewrites the ancient conceptions of man – his centric world and the linearity of his existence – to call into question the fundamental beliefs that are crucial to patriarchal culture. Discovering the true paradigms intrinsic to the universe: “chaos, complexity, connectionism,”76꩜ (Sadie Plant: Zeros and Ones. Digital Women + the new Technolculture, Fourth Estate, London 1998, p. 164) becomes tangible through the linked system of hypertext. All of which suggests that the ignorant distinctions and ideas of the unique position of the human are delusional and a shortened version of the system.

This is the BA thesis soft encyclopedia, written by Julia Kerres. 2024.