
Media for Thinking the Unthinkable (2013) - danboarder
http://worrydream.com/MediaForThinkingTheUnthinkable/
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adamzerner
I made
[https://skimmablevideos.herokuapp.com/](https://skimmablevideos.herokuapp.com/)
which lets users create their own "skims".

Associated Show HN -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8799166](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8799166).

~~~
TeMPOraL
This is uber cool. It would solve the biggest problem with videotutorials if
it was to catch on.

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andyjohnson0
_Interlude - There could be unthinkable thoughts_

Isn't this inevitable? Rather like the idea of computable and non-computable
numbers [1] being a inevitable consequence of the nature of numbers and
computation.

If a thought is a mental state then, at any instant, a brain can only be in
one of a large but finite set of states. Unless all brains are identical then
there must be mental states that are inaccessible to some brains. Extending
the state space of some brains by using new mediums, while useful, won't
change the principle.

(The question of whether there are thoughts that cannot be thought by _any_
mentality is kind of hard for me to get my brain around. I suspect that such a
thing might not qualify as a thought.)

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computable_number](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computable_number)

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voltagex_
Previously:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=http:%2F%2Fworrydream.com%2FMe...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=http:%2F%2Fworrydream.com%2FMediaForThinkingTheUnthinkable%2F&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

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danboarder
I've seen this before too but its always good to think about how the medium
(written text, radio, video, web, etc) shapes and constrains the message being
communicated.

This is not a new field of study* but new platforms like wearables could lead
to new interactive mediums capable of helping us think in new ways. I'm sure
the web is doing this in society already.

* see the work of Marshall McLuhan [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan)

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TeMPOraL
Reminds me - is there any circuit design / electronics tool that would provide
even remotely similar user experience to Bret Victor's interactive circuit
diagram?

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meesterdude
Always thought provoking for me, as always with worrydream. Especially the bit
about unthinkable thoughts - mind blown.

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dbpokorny
How does it work when the subject matter is compilers, for example in the
context of CompCert?

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dredmorbius
No idea what this is even about, but the website is a jumbled, unreadable,
mis-layed-out mess.

[http://i.imgur.com/MwFZOsJ.png](http://i.imgur.com/MwFZOsJ.png)

~~~
Silhouette
It's about playing to a medium's strengths to better present information. For
example, on a computer we can use live data and we can offer interactive ways
to explore the data and what happens as it changes. We aren't limited to
giving a static view of fixed data as, say, a book would be. Victor's key
point is that better tools for exploring data can help us to understand new
concepts that maybe we couldn't even conceive without that expanded frame of
reference.

This page is itself a subtle demonstration of the underlying themes. Victor
gave a talk lasting 40 minutes -- which I encourage you to watch -- but he
presents it here using a simple, elegant interaction style that also lets you
scan a summary of the key points and get a feel for the key illustrations in
far less time. This is more effective than either the full video, the slide
show, or a transcript would be alone.

That makes it more than a little ironic that you have chosen to reduce your
browser to only showing static content by disabling JS, and then posted here
just to complain about how the page is broken. If you had used your medium to
its full potential, you would now understand how profoundly you have missed
his point. :-)

~~~
dredmorbius
"Degrade gracefully" has been a guideline for almost precisely as long as it's
been a guideline principally honored in the breech.

~~~
Silhouette
It's also a guideline with little if any rational justification in 2015.

If you need to support _everyone_ , including someone accessing your site from
a 10 year old PC in their local library, you need to worry about this kind of
thing. If, for example, you are providing some sort of public service or
support for the disadvantaged, there may well be ethical and/or legal
justifications for making this effort.

But supporting people who deliberately break their software because of some
personal grudge against one of the foundations of the modern Web rarely brings
any benefit either commercially or personally. Some people feel that the rest
of the world owes them everything they want on their own terms for free, but
that's their problem, not yours.

~~~
dredmorbius
We disagree.

"Degrade gracefully" often equates to "follow Web standards". More generally,
it means "seek simplicity". Which reminds me of the old saying, "complexity is
the enemy". The full quote ending in "... of reliability".

It dates from a January, 1958 _Economist_ article.

See also Santayana on history.

~~~
Silhouette
What does disabling JavaScript have to do with "following Web standards"? Next
week: If I go to a theatre and wear a blindfold, I may not get the best
experience of the show.

The presentation of that page is actually the epitome of what you're talking
about. He took a 40 minute video, and distilled it down to just a few
essential points and key illustrations, making it much quicker and simpler for
a visitor to get the general idea. He _is_ degrading gracefully, and it's not
his fault that a tiny minority of geeks won't enjoy it because they're... I
don't even know, trying to make some kind of point about the dangers of
JavaScript on the modern Web or something?!

