Annotation by Peter Hesseldahl

From pehe@inet.uni-c.dk 
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 1994 11:30:43 +0100 (MET)
From: Peter Hesseldahl 
Subject: Re: Turing Galaxy
To: Vgrass 
In-Reply-To: <9407191821.AA23417@tansei1.tansei.cc.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
Message-Id: 
Status: R

Dear Volker,=20

I hope my reply is not to late to be of any use. We just had our second
child a week ago, a little boy - so we=D5re busy.=20

I enjoyed reading your article. It=D5s obviously a lot of knowledge and
experience crammed into your theory of the Turing galaxy.=20
I have a feeling, that one could find many other characteristics of this
new galaxy. alan Kay once dexcribed to me how computers added another
dimension to text in the sense that you can have a flat sheet of papaer
with two words on it, that you feel are related, but are placed in
different ends of the paper. By using hypertext, you can bend or crumble
the paper, and make the words touch each other. So computers create links
by adding a new dimension. Perhaps this relates to the three
dimensionality I feel you imply in your description of Turing galaxy as
opposed to the Gutenberg galaxy.=20

My brain is not quite up to speed, so that is about my only comment
content wise.=20
I have some comments to your writing, though.=20
It seems a bit unclear who your target is. On one hand you are describing
and expalining things that are well known to people who are on the net,
but certainly are interesting for those who are not.=20
On the other hand, you use jargon and phrases, which belong on the net,
and which might be quite confusing, to a beginner - even though I will
admit that it adds color to your language.=20
I see a similar uncertainty in your refering to traditional philosophers
in the field. the article is generally easy to read but occasionally you
refer the theories that I dont think you can take for granted that your
readers are familiar with.=20

Here are some examples, I have taken out:=20


 Leibniz' */ars combinatoria/ takes the place of the */ars memoria/. Or in
the phrasing of Lyotard: with the virtually complete knowledge in store,
Leibniz' */ars combinatoria/ takes the place of the */ars memoria/. Or in
the phrasing of Lyotard: with the virtually complete knowledge in store,
the problem becomes one of creating new, surprising recombinations.[23]
Maybe we can see a common theme in the quest for the Universal Key (*/ars
memoria/), that turns into one for the Universal Script (Leibniz), and
finally into the Universal Machine (Turing), and the Universal
Here are some examples, I have taken out:=20


 Leibniz' */ars combinatoria/ takes the place of the */ars memoria/. Or in
the phrasing of Lyotard: with the virtually complete knowledge in store,
Leibniz' */ars combinatoria/ takes the place of the */ars memoria/. Or in
the phrasing of Lyotard: with the virtually complete knowledge in store,
the problem becomes one of creating new, surprising recombinations.[23]
Maybe we can see a common theme in the quest for the Universal Key (*/ars
memoria/), that turns into one for the Universal Script (Leibniz), and
finally into the Universal Machine (Turing), and the Universal
Communication System (Shannon).

(this is unnecesarily hard to read)

Galaxy become operational only after being read into and processed by the
cortical CPU, models in the Turing Galaxy run inside a dynamic self-active
technical medium. Bit words have the double function of addressing human
 (Why use the word Cortical, when you can say brain, or explain it?
(sorry, but I usually write for a mass-audience))

and any other means of transportation that came up. 'Snail Mail', as it is
called in net.land, is usually private, to someone you know, or to

(net.land is jargon. If you understand net.land, you don=D5t need an
explanation of snail mail)

unmoderated, ie. the information is provided as is, or moderated, ie. pre-
processed by a wetware editor agent, which for certain purposes helps to

(wetware is heavy duty jargon)

into a PR device will cause a flood of flame - the power of the many.[82]
=20
(put the explanation of flaming in the text - it=D5s easier for your reader
=
)

bias
towards computing and networking itself will shift. Today the comp. groups
are far outnumbered by the alt. and rec. groups.

(this needs some explanation)



A last observation is that I think you push to much material into your
footnotes. There are many explanations and interesting stories that I
think you could include in the main text - without losing sight of the
structure of your general theory.=20

You probably disagree on some of this - but thus spake Peter.=20

Have fun,=20

Peter