Trailblazers’ blazer
By: Chris Glasier
Tags: It Machine, New Way Of Working, Associative Indexes, As We May Think, Json

Salvador Dali’s thinking machine

In Trailblazers, I hope I adequately made the case for a new branch of information technology developed from Bush’s vision of mechanized records.

Unfortunately, the hypothetical mechanism he describes, his memex, is not really helpful, since technology has advanced way beyond what even he might have thought possible. But what is novel and important for information technology is his recognition, like Salvador Dali’s, that individuals need a machine to back up their thinking and allow them more time for their creativity.

It has to be a machine rather than a digitized version of paperwork because of the characteristics of information. Made with web development technology, like a browser it is a utility to handle diverse content, not though for browsing but for establishing trails. Blazer seems an appropriate name.

Links and Associative Indexes

Imagine this interface displayed on a small screen. Each name is energized by a link to the universal assembler code module, such that selection of a name causes each of the three parts of the associative index to react.

For example, selecting Bedroom centers and highlights it in the trail at the top. The right hand index moves to the left column, its names allowing branching off the trail. The right column is now populated with previously selected associated names for progressing down the trail.

Data is positioned by reference to relationships rather than coordinates. The indexes are not only the means to very quickly navigate large complex amounts of data but names linked in a trail turn indexed data into information — unique addresses.

Information and Know-how

Selecting the highlighted name in the left column toggles the right index between names and aspects. Each aspect is linked to built in or specialist indexes and code modules, depending on whether it concerns identification (blue), links (yellow) or different specific interests (green). Determining key/values of sufficient aspects results in actionable knowledge.

Storage of such comprehensive shareable records would be problematic if it were not for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). The universal assembler automatically converts the notation into JavaScript objects, enabling anyone to choose from the whole gamut of Net resources — multimedia, animation, search, sharing, e-commerce and so on — to select, visualize, analyze, instruct and report.

JSON work seems an appropriate term for such modus operandi.

Examples

Simple interaction — for example, utility companies, with permission, incorporate their JavaScript objects into their customers’ own JSON records, as soon as connections are made. The object contains key/value pairs covering all aspects of the service. No longer do customers have to suffer the “For English, Press 1” type ritual of call centers, as preferences are transmitted by the object when any communication is initiated. Such systems are designed to evolve, so that machines increasingly take care of more actions and queries. (ATM’s have shown people value convenience over human interaction when dealing with the mundane.)

Reusable know- how enables JSON work to progress by selection. Lists of aspects to consider as well as previously selected values are automatically drawn from classified personal and/or specialist recycling stores. Such stores are equipped to return options according to classification and sort criteria, as well as to analyze and store new input or edits.

Specialist online markets — A simple request starts an automatic exchange based on keys and values. Initiation identifying a real world entity returns an anonymous set of unique keys and values. These are extracted from JSON records of those who have registered a compatible interest in the same real world entity. Having refined the search by dismissing keys and values not of interest or out of range, the initiator cycles through a series of comparative interactions until satisfied with a viable option. The scope of the markets extends to JavaScript platforms that generate multimedia and other digital output and devices that automate actions.

Consensual advertising — For example, in return for automated access to potential customers, at the right time and at the right place, manufacturers provide models and data that potential specifiers such as architects use in the creation of a building project. In this case, the same information that is presented in sets of large technical drawings, 3D models, specifications, bills of materials, purchase orders and other paperwork is simply handled by automated digital processes and generators. Not only that, but most importantly, implications of changes in either design criteria or product selection are always apparent, as the process is regenerated from bottom up using data directly from its source.

Integral animation– not only handles complexity of data in the universal assembler, but also supports planning and tracking processes that rely on instructions, action and reports from various sources. For example, a manager might have an augmented reality model on his desk that updates automatically from reports received from universal assemblers on individuals’ devices from near and far.

As We May Now Think

JSON work is an alternative approach to information technology in the same vein as open source coding. It establishes what aspects of what entities need to be considered and defined to achieve different objectives. It can compete with, and contribute to, artificial intelligence at the level of mechanized know-how that directly benefits individuals and groups on a day to day basis.

“As We May Think” was published by the Atlantic in 1945. In it, Bush wrote:

ignored are means as yet unknown which may come any day to accelerate technical progress as violently as did the advent of the thermionic tube.

This is published in Medium in response to that.