Andy Matuschak and Michael Nielsen
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How can we develop transformative tools for thought? Andy Matuschak and Michael Nielsen Part of the origin myth of modern computing is the story of roamed the earth, and today’s work is lesser. Yes, those a golden age in the 1960s and 1970s. In this story, visionary pioneers did amazing things, and arguably had ways of pioneers pursued a dream in which computers enabled working that modern technologists, in both industry and powerful tools for thought, that is, tools to augment academia, are poorly equipped to carry on. But they also human intelligence. One of E.g., Douglas Engelbart, made mistakes, and were ignorant of powerful ideas that those pioneers, Alan Kay, Augmenting Human Intellect: A are available today. And so a theme through both parts of Conceptual Framework (1962). summed up the optimism of the essay is to identify powerful ideas that weren’t this dream when he wrote of the potential of the personal formerly known or weren’t acted upon. Out of this computer: “the very use of it Alan Kay, User Interface: A Personal understanding arises a conviction that a remarkable set of would actually change the View (1989). opportunities is open today. thought patterns of an entire civilization”. A word on nomenclature: the term “tools for thought” It’s an inspiring dream, which helped lead to modern rolls off neither the tongue nor the keyboard. What’s more, interactive graphics, windowing interfaces, word the term “tool” implies a certain narrowness. Alan Kay has processors, and much else. But retrospectively it’s diffcult argued that a more powerful aim Again, in Alan Kay, User Interface: A not to be disappointed, to feel that computers have not yet is to develop a new medium for Personal View (1989), among other been nearly as transformative as far older tools for thought. A medium such as, say, places. thought, such as language and writing. Today, it’s common Adobe Illustrator is essentially different from any of the in technology circles to pay lip service to the pioneering individual tools Illustrator contains. Such a medium creates dreams of the past. But nostalgia aside there is little a powerful immersive context, a context in which the user determined effort to pursue the vision of transformative can have new kinds of thought, thoughts that were new tools for thought. formerly impossible for them. Speaking loosely, the range We believe now is a good time to work hard on this of expressive thoughts possible in such a medium is an vision again. In this essay we sketch out a set of ideas we emergent property of the elementary objects and actions in believe can be used to help develop transformative new that medium. If those are well chosen, the medium tools for thought. In the frst part of the essay we describe expands the possible range of human thought. an experimental prototype system that we’ve built, a kind With that said, the term “tools An account may be found in of mnemonic medium intended to augment human for thought” has been widely used Iverson’s Turing Award memory. This is a snapshot of an ongoing project, detailing since Iverson’s 1950s and 1960s lecture, Notation as a Tool of Thought (1979). Incidentally, even both encouraging progress as well as many challenges and work introducing the term. And so Iverson is really describing a opportunities. In the second part of the essay, we broaden we shall use “tools for thought” as medium for thought, the APL the focus. We sketch several other prototype systems. And our catch all phrase, while giving programming language, not a narrow tool. we address the question: why is it that the technology ourselves license to explore a industry has made comparatively little effort developing broader range, and also occasionally preferring the term this vision of transformative tools for thought? “medium” when it is apt. In the opening we mentioned some visionaries of the Let’s come back to that phrase from the opening, about past. To those could be added many others – Ivan changing “the thought patterns of an entire civilization”. It Sutherland, Seymour Papert, Vannevar Bush, and more. sounds ludicrous, a kind of tech soothsaying. Except, of Online there is much well-deserved veneration for these course, such changes have happened multiple times during people. But such veneration can veer into an unhealthy human history: the development of language, of writing, reverence for the good old days, a belief that giants once and our other most powerful tools for thought. And, for 1 of 28 version 2; updated 2019-12-10 https://numinous.productions/ttft better and worse, computers really have affected the Here’s an excerpt: thought patterns of our civilization over the past 60 years, and those changes seem like just the beginning. This essay is a small contribution to understanding how such changes happen, and what is still possible. The musician and comedian Martin Mull has observed that “writing about music is like dancing about architecture”. In a similar way, there’s an inherent inadequacy in writing about tools for thought. To the extent that such a tool succeeds, it expands your thinking beyond what can be achieved using existing tools, including writing. The more transformative the tool, the larger the gap that is opened. Conversely, the larger the gap, the more diffcult the new tool is to evoke in writing. But it’s not a conventional essay. Rather, Quantum But what writing can do, and the reason we wrote this Country is a prototype for a new type of mnemonic medium. essay, is act as a bootstrap. It’s a way of identifying points Aspirationally, the mnemonic medium makes it almost of leverage that may help develop new tools for thought. So effortless for users to remember what they read. That may let’s get on with it. sound like an impossible aspiration. What makes it plausible is that cognitive scientists know a considerable Part I: Memory systems amount about how human beings store long-term memories. Indeed, what they know can almost be distilled Introducing the mnemonic medium to an actionable recipe: follow these steps, and you can Few subjects are more widely regarded as diffcult than remember whatever you choose. quantum computing and quantum mechanics. Indeed, Unfortunately, those steps are poorly supported by popular media accounts often regale (and intimidate) existing media. Is it possible to For more on this argument, see readers with quotes from famous physicists in the vein of: design a new medium which Andy Matuschak, Why books don’t work (2019). “anyone who thinks they’ve understood quantum much more actively supports mechanics has not understood quantum mechanics”. memorization? That is, the medium would build in (and, What makes these subjects diffcult? In fact, ideally, make almost effortless) the key steps involved in individually many of the underlying ideas are not too memory. If we could do this, then instead of memory being complicated for people with a technical background. But a haphazard event, subject to chance, the mnemonic the ideas come in an overwhelming number, a tsunami of medium would make memory into a choice. Of course, on unfamiliar concepts and notation. People must learn in its own this wouldn’t make it trivial to learn subjects such rapid succession of qubits, the bra-ket notation, Hadamard as quantum mechanics and quantum computing – gates, controlled-not gates, and many, many other learning those subjects is about much more than memory. abstract, unfamiliar notions. They’re imbibing an entire But it would help in addressing one core diffculty: the new language. Even if they can follow at frst, overwhelming number of new concepts and notation. understanding later ideas requires fuency with all the In fact, there are many ways of redesigning the essay earlier ideas. It’s overwhelming and eventually medium to do that. Before showing you our prototype, disheartening. please pause for a moment and consider the following As an experiment, we have developed a questions: how could you build a medium to better website, Quantum Country, which explores a new support a person’s memory of what they read? What approach to explaining quantum computing and quantum interactions could easily and enjoyably help people mechanics. Ostensibly, Quantum Country appears to be a consolidate memories? And, more broadly: is it possible to conventional essay introduction to these subjects. There is 2x what people remember? 10x? And would that make any text, explanations, and equations, much as in any other long-term difference to their effectiveness? technical essay. 2 of 28 version 2; updated 2019-12-10 https://numinous.productions/ttft Click here to view a video of this interaction. Let’s sketch the user experience of Quantum Country. At the We use the term cards for these interface elements pairing time of this writing the site contains three mnemonic questions and answers. essays (i.e., particular instances of the mnemonic Of course, for long-term memory it’s not enough for medium). We’ll focus on the introductory essay, “Quantum users to be tested just once on their recall. Instead, a few Computing for the Very Curious”. Embedded within the days after frst reading the essay, the user receives an email text of the essay are 112 questions about that text. Users are asking them to sign into a review session. In that review asked to create an account, and quizzed as they read on session they’re tested again, in a manner similar to what whether they remember the answers to those questions. was shown above. Then, through repeated review sessions The fgure above shows the interaction as a user answers a in the days and weeks ahead, people consolidate the question.