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.

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