On Sensemaking
One of our biggest quests is to understand the world around us.
Visions and inspirations
Many different names, including:
- Collective Intelligence
- Collaborative Sensemaking
- Hive Mind
- Extended Mind
- Superintelligence (which might or might not involve humans)
In fiction:
- Encyclopedia Galactica in Asimov's Foundation series
- A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age
In non-fiction:
- 1937: HG Wells' article World Brain
- 1945: Vannevar Bush's Memex
- 1945: Teilhard De Chardin and Vladimir Vernadsky's idea of The Noosphere
- 1960: JCR Licklider's Man-Computer Symbiosis
- 1974: Ted Nelson's Computer Lib/Dream Machines
- 1977: Adele Goldberg and Alan Kay's Personal Dynamic Media
- 1987: Apple's Knowledge Navigator video
You can browse all of these, in context, in my Brain here. To suggest others, please write me.
In my imagination: The Big Fungus.
A caveat
Despite (obviously) being a huge fan of sensemaking, I'm also a realist. That means I think many actions we take aren't based on logic, reasoning, and measured debate about actual potential outcomes, but instead are a maelstrom of fear, spin, factoids, misrepresentations, etc.
One of our greatest fears is being shunned by our neighbors, our communities. That's why I have this Thought in my Brain.