Lumps And Splits

"A well-constructed tree gives everything a place"

"Each thing gets only one place"

"No one category should be too big or too small"

"It should be obvious what the defining principle of each category is".

These quotes represent the requirements that Weinberger lists for a tree of information. However it also shows the limits of this medium, limits that are not found in the third order of order. In the digital order, there are no rules or restrictions. As Weinberger notes, trees require us to "make binary decisions about where things go. Ideas, information, and knowledge shouldn't have to suffer from that limitation". Luckily with the third order of order, they do not have to. A leaf can hang on multiple branches and can be different for every individual. We have already established in the previous chapter that technology has destroyed our sense of the geography of knowledge, but now it has also destroyed its shape, allowing each of us to create our own trees of knowledge.

The Geography of Knowledge

Does knowledge have a geography? Sure, back in the day when people actually used libraries for its books rather than its study space, but after reading Weinberger's third chapter about the digital disorder, I would have to say technology has eradicated that geography. What interests me though is how this lack of geography is going to affect generations to come. Even though we have all grown up with technology, it wasn't as important to our society as it is today. My generation still utilized the geography of knowledge, understanding that To Kill A Mockingbird belongs in a completely different section than the biography of George W. Bush, and that every book has its own unique place. But as websites such as Amazon, which is built upon the idea that knowledge can be organized in as many ways as possible, expands, future generations may loose their sense of what makes different pieces of writing, well different. At a bookstore, when we are in the fiction section, we can trust with a high degree of probability that we are only going to be browsing through fiction stories. However, out on the world wide web, clicking the suggestions for a fiction story might contain both fiction, not fiction, and reference entries. Therefore, the third order of order's plethora of routes of information may not only change the way future generations go about seeking information but also the way they organize their own knowledge-geography maps.

The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Argument

In one sentence: Advertising sells everything but the product.

Advertising sells a image, a location, a feeling, a desire, a fear, a lifestyle... but not the product.

It feeds our subconscious and we devour it eagerly and unknowingly.

What does this picture have to do with Pepsi as a product? Nothing......

Brainstorming the Digital Arguement

Obey

1. What are three or more concerns you have - political/ economic/ personal/ cultural/ educational -now?

2. List any visual images that come to mind when you look at what you listed in #1

3. which images from #2 seem most compelling to you? Why?

4. What colors do you associate with what you listed in #1?

4a. Why do you associate with what you listed in #1?

5. What association might other people make with the images you listed in #2?

5a. What might you do with the images you listed in #2 to help other people make similar associations as you do? Who are these people (the audience) anyway?

Interview With Deedee