There are no little boxes: Everything is deeply intertwingled

The post yesterday on Information R/evolution reminded me of a concept that I ran across not too long ago. Ted Nelson, who coined the word hypertext (among other things), introduced the concept of intertwingularity in his 1974 book “Computer Lib/Machine Dreams”:

EVERYTHING IS DEEPLY INTERTWINGLED. In an important sense there are no “subjects” at all; there is only all knowledge, since the cross-connections among the myriad topics of this world simply cannot be divided up neatly.

…

Hierarchical and sequential structures, especially popular since Gutenberg, are usually forced and artificial. Intertwingularity is not generally acknowledged — people keep pretending they can make things hierarchical, categorizable and sequential when they can’t.

In the comments on my post yesterday, Chris said:

I know we’re not stuck in categories anymore.

But, tags have never struck me as the ‘answer’. I know they’re doing good things. I know they allow interesting ways to view information. But, I’m not sure that tagging information is making it easier for me to get my hands on.

Maybe I just don’t grok it. Maybe because I can’t see the light, I don’t really put enough effort into tagging my own information properly.

Chris is right: tags aren’t “the answer.” Tags are just another way of dividing the world up into neat little boxes. But I think the main point of the video, and the thesis of Everything is Miscellaneous is that there are no little boxes. Everything is deeply intertwingled.

On a side note: Ted Nelson is one interesting character. He strikes me as being a bit like Richard Stallman: a visionary, and someone who deserves respect for sticking to his ideals, but a bit of a nutbar. There’s an interesting article in the Wired archives about Nelson and his yet-to-be-realized Xanadu hypertext system.

I also noted from the Wikipedia article that Nelson coined the term teledildonics. I laughed out loud when I read the next sentence: “The main thrust of his work…”