link space:
There are links and there are nodes. A physical model is made up of sticks representing the links and balls representing the nodes that connect the links together. The topology created by this model is a link space. It is my belief that human knowledge and wisdom is found in the study of the topology or the link space created by the collection of links between facts, theories, and concepts.There are many ways to create link spaces. For example, the "scientific" method calls for collecting a sufficient amount of data so that the links inherent in the data become apparent -- this seems to assume that there is a pre-existing link space that we are trying to discover. The deeper philosophical issues, such as whether there is or is not a pre-existing link space and whether we create or only discover, are beyond the scope of this page. The topic here is to introduce the idea of the link space and to look at some of the link spaces created by hypertext on the web.
- There is organizing and categorizing the data at the nodes. There is mapping the links between nodes. Finally, there is studing the interaction between nodes and links and that is the study of link space.
- A link space is inherently three dimensional and is an inherently synergistic organization of nodes and links. The state-in-time of a set of links impacts the state-in-time of the nodes. The analysis of the link space examines the interaction of these state-in-time conditions.
- It is easy for me to understand that one link space becomes a node in a larger link space. In the same vein, I believe a link can be made up of a smaller link space. Gaining insight into this transformation from link space to link is central to this series of experiments.
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