

Ask YC:  Links (rather than words) as forming a new language for higher level communication? - amichail

Why not have conversations where the smallest unit is a link rather than a word?  These links would be to existing content on the web (i.e., you are not allowed to create new content and link to it).<p>To experiment with this form of communication, I propose trying such a conversation here starting with this link:<p>http://weblog.fortnow.com/2008/04/web-10-guy-in-web-20-world.html<p>The idea is not just to have people contribute related links, but rather to have a conversation where replies contain link(s) that directly address what is being replied to in the parent.  After all, almost anything that you would like to say has probably been said better by someone else on the web already... so why not just link to it?
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dkokelley
You're basically saying "let's communicate with entire concepts and ideas
instead of words, and let's represent those concepts and ideas via links to
articles."

The problem is that the links will contain words which represent an idea. You
couldn't have an article that was made entirely out of links. Furthermore, the
link does not immediately convey an idea, unless the reader automatically
recognizes the link (not likely). Using the link to represent the idea is more
efficient for the person providing the link, but not for the people being
talked too, when compared to reading a summary of an idea with the link as a
reference.

It reminds me of a Star Trek episode (TNG) where the captain is stranded on a
planet with an alien who only speaks with references to his species' history
(there was also some wild beast that was hunting them). The alien would only
say things like "Gesh, from Torrock," which represented a story about a
warrior who faced a similar situation to theirs. That short phrase was the
link, and it represented an entire idea, but to the captain it had no meaning,
because he didn't know the story.

I suppose I should have found a link that describes what I just said. That
would be hard to find.

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astine
Ultimately, the smallest unit of communication must be a representation of a
cognitive thought. Pictures work for this, but words are more convenient.
Generally, you can't have a conversation with the link at the atomic unit
because the link is only as good as what it links to; that is, the words or
pictures in the link are what is added to the conversation, not just the link
itself.

Also, it would be really confusing to communicate in links as there would be a
difficulty in providing context.

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rw
"After all, almost anything that you would like to say has probably been said
better by someone else on the web already."

Emergence != aggregation.

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davidw
You broke your rule by using words instead of just links.

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amichail
<http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html>

