It uses XML syntax to create structures that can describe links similar to the simple unidirectional hyperlinks of today's HTML, as well as more sophisticated links Gronbaek, K. et al. 2000. Open Hypermedia as User Controlled Meta Data for the Web. More references useful to the uninitiated would be very welcome. Hard sciences are technology-based and those which have strong quantitive characteristics, such as mathematics, medicine, physics, etc. Admittedly, many of these have their quantitive properties , such as cliometrics in history.
Technology is very important.
Certain inventions have revolutionized human society. Gutenberg's printing press comes to mind. But technology, although it is very often what lets the genie out of the bottle, is not usually what creates the need for the genie. It met the need created by the Scholasticism of the late Medieval and early Renaissance periods. I feel that technology answers needs.