From: robj@netcom.com (Rob Jellinghaus)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Morally good hypertext
Date: 23 Dec 92 00:01:20 GMT
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)

I have elided as much of Morris' text as possible in the interest of
saving bandwidth.  I hope I have not corrupted his message
significantly.

In article <BzoKJC.Lrv@watserv2.uwaterloo.ca> msmorris@watsci.UWaterloo.ca (Mike Morris) writes:
>Rob Jellinghaus had quoted in his .sig:
>              "Next time you see a lie being spread or a bad 
>               decision being made out of sheer ignorance,
>               pause, and think of hypertext."
>                             -- K. Eric Drexler, _Engines of Creation_
>
>I used it as an occasion for complaining about Drexler's book, thusly:
>
>  ...I wanted to comment that this one sentence epitomizes everything
>  that irked me (and still irks me) about K. Eric Drexler's book.
>
>And Marvin Minsky responds:
>
>  Hmm.  I have a feeling that something's wrong here.  First, it is a
>  seminal, important book.  But this particular sentence doesn't make
>  sense out of context.
...
>First, let me say that I well understand _Engines of Creation_ is a
>seminal, important book.
...
>My overriding complaint about the book has to do with Drexler's
>can-do scientism.
...
>It would seem to me that hypertext, as
>Drexler describes it in _EoC_, means the electronic linkage of text to
>text, sort of a super footnoting system linking everything to everything
>else.
...
>I do not think Truth is to be found in such a system. I believe
>that Drexler's encomium to hypertext presupposes a kind of reading that is
>a simple sum of unit factoids, each factoid scientifically determinable
>by trained experts. I.e., a kind of reading that is a little akin to
>the interlineal reading and writing style that is natural to people here.
>The trouble with this is that I think reading is *very* interpretive, and
>that the forging of the interpretive links between book and book
>is a highly *creative* process.
...
>One way I have of putting it is that I think the real problem is much
>worse than the ``if we could only do a 10 times better job at science
>education'' advocates would have us believe. I think the real problem
>is more a failure of critical thinking, and a failure to hold critical
>thought in high honour. A reading-and-writing system suited to
>television-era attention spans---what I suspect hypertext might well
>end up being---sounds to me like it might even be a step backwards.

You raise excellent points, and ones which should be well considered
by any designers of hypertext systems.  The tension between the
dynamic of critical thought and the dynamic most natural to a
hypertext medium is an intensely interesting area for study, as well
as a fundamental issue for the future of intellectual endeavor.

I recommend the following book:

_Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and
Technology_, George P. Landow, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992,
ISBN 0-8018-4280-0 (paperback 0-8018-4281-6).

Landow is a professor of English at Brown, and has taught an
undergraduate writing course as well as several graduate seminars
using a hypertext system.  He has extensive experience actually
working with such systems in an educational milieu, and discusses the
transformations wrought by hypertext on our traditional notions of
"the text", authorship, collaboration, publication, and criticism.

(Some may recall Landow's ?September? 1992 article in the NYT Book
Review, titled "An End to Books".  _Hypertext..._ expands on the
themes presented in that article, providing much essential background.)

I found the book to be exceptionally clear and far-reaching in its
portrayal of the uses of these new literary tools.  I whole-
heartedly commend this book to anyone who is concerned with the
impact of new media on intellectual discourse.  Landow's viewpoint
is hopeful, or at least stimulating.  I would be very interested to
hear others' opinions on the book's thesis.

-- 
Rob Jellinghaus    |  "Next time you see a lie being spread or a bad 
robj@netcom.com    |   decision being made out of sheer ignorance,
robj@xanadu.com    |   pause, and think of hypertext."
uunet!netcom!robj  |       -- K. Eric Drexler, _Engines of Creation_
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books