(something I'd like to flesh out later, perhaps with some drawings of the ![[Visual]](/wiki/modern/img/moin-inter.png){kind=small}
VisualLanguage that it might look like)
People will carry argument graphs around with them.
You'll be walking around, and somebody will challenge you to a game of "Is homozexuality innate or not." Bam!
You speak a few words (LinguisticUserInterface,) or perhaps they just leap into view, when an ArtificialIntelligence realizes that the guns are about to be drawn.
The graph will be a diagram of arguments that you know of, for and against some proposition.
It'll show you what you trust, and what you don't trust.
It'll show what's been refuted, what hasn't.
You have a shared store with people sympathetic to you, and who you consult with. People also put out distributions of the argument graphs.
Conversation take a turn to epistimology? Bam! Whip that graph sucker out. If you can't even agree with the person on how to know things, it's not so surprising you come out thinking different things, after all...
Development
This is a technology that develops over time; We don't wake up and suddenly see it one day.
It starts with the SVG revolution, really, somewhere between 2006-2008. Someone makes a wiki that makes use of SVG for spatial arrangement. Some other people are making formalized machine-understandable descriptions of the types of arguments that exist in the world.
Around 2010, everyone's got a blog, and kids are freaking out the 35+'ers, because these kids are really organized. They're super organized. They, and the techs, are the early adopters of the HiveMind.
The advocacy organizations have learned how to pull technology into their arena, and make good use of it. (Think the Dean campaign, and the recent person-person tech-aided persuasion efforts.) Argument templates are all over the place. This is where the software comes into play.
The next major leap is visual glasses and/or contacts that draw over reality. I have no idea when AugmentedReality will come into play, but it does some time almost certianly before 2025. (Mainstream, I mean: We have the tech now.)
Most likely, the intermediary is WallDisplay, where you point your pen at a wall, and it draws the argument graph on the wall.
I like your argument. It's so optimistic. But I spent the last two days surrounded by morons and I am bitter. The majority of the people would not care in the least even if you beat them up with an argument graph or if that graph turned into a snake and bit them in the ass. People are not designed to be communicated with. I don't want an argument graph, I want a big stick to smack people with!
-- DanilaMedvedev 2005-01-29 12:30:26
My belief is that it works like this:
There are people who listen to and will respect an argument, and change their mind if a good case can be made.
There are people who don't.
The people who don't, however, tend to be swayed by the people that they trust, who do listen and respect arguments.
My interest in the ArgumentGraphs isn't to argue with the lady in the back of the bus. My interest in the ArgumentGraphs is to argue with the people who respect and value arguments.
We'll see how it goes from there..!
-- LionKimbro 2005-01-30 00:23:28
Lion, have you tried ot make (or seen) any examples with some content (i.e. connections or links)? I was inspired by this page to start making a huge "MyWorldView" document with simple statements that I believe to be true and sometimes URLs and short explanations. -- DanilaMedvedev 2005-08-14 19:23:49