[Gnu-arch-users] [FOSDEM substitute] "The Document" is Only a Hypothesis

[Thomas Lord]

Since I won't be at FOSDEM I'm not preparing a talk or slides.  I am,
however, writing a brief series of short essays about the topic I
meant to speak about.

This is the fourth essay in the series.  The list so far is:

     1. The King's English
     2. The Literature Shelf is Not Literature
     3. Who Owns the Author?
     4. "The Document" is Only a Hypothesis




                 "The Document" is Only a Hypothesis


  A document is always manifest in the real world in the form of a
  signal.  There is no other physical manifestation of a document.
  Books, recordings, IP packets -- all are carriers for signals 
  moving and spreading through space and time.

  We sometimes speak of a document as a singular thing that tangibly
  exists: An author makes changes to a document; Readers view the
  document.  This is the document-as-sculpture, view.  

  Documents are not sculptures, though.  For example, an author
  working on a manuscript could copy the manuscript, burn the
  original, and keep working.   The document recorded in that
  manuscript is not a thing -- it is just a signal being modulated by
  the author.  It is the world-line of the authorship (a world-line
  from which signals originate) that defines a document.

  A document, in short, is a deliberate pattern, defined by a lineage
  of authorial intent, to which regions of space and time may conform.
  A document is a particular kind of signal -- a signal that originates
  from a specific world-line, modulated by the intent of creating a 
  document.


* Synthesis

  We can synthesize the three previous essays with the above 
  and begin to write the specification for a global hypertext
  system:

        A global hypertext system is a set of signals -- each
        signal is a document.

        The information content of the signal is the contents
        of the document.

        Each signal has a globally unique name.  The name can 
        be used to receive that signal.  The name is analogous 
        to a "frequency" on which the signal is broadcast.

        The right to modulate each signal can be shared, transferred,
        and subdivided.  The right to modulate each signal is the 
        authorship of that signal -- that document.


* Does Philosophy Matter to Engineering?

  This and previous essays have looked at documents, names, and
  authorship very philosophically.   Have we gained any insight 
  of engineering value?   Certainly:

  A newbie working on the project to build a global hypertext 
  proposes:

        Since I know how, I will build a database to house 
        documents.   Author's will be able to log-in and modify
        their own documents.   Readers can retrieve documents 
        by asking for them by name.

  We now know, right away, to reject this proposal.  Documents are
  not sculptures -- they can not be stored.  The newbie is thinking
  about a hypertext of documents in a nonsensical way.

  The newbie might return later with a revised proposal:

        I don't know quite how but I want to help build
        two programs:

        The first program will be a receiver that can be tuned to any
        of an infinite set of named channels.

        The second program will be a transmitter manufacturing device.

        When you run the second program it will create a new
        transmitter with a unique channel and channel name.  Whatever
        the transmitter actually is, it will have a property-like
        nature: it can be shared, transferred and subdivided.  Only
        share-holders in the transmitter will be able to modulate the
        corresponding signal.

  Now the newbie is winning on two counts.  First, he is putting the
  problem specification ahead of the solution ("I don't know quite how
  but...").   Second, he is getting the problem specification about
  right -- he is paying attention to the philosophy of documents.


-t