Wiki’s Group Mind

I was browsing a Python mailing list – a discussion about best programs completely written in Python. Not sure how I wandered off that topic. I think I went into list of wiki engines and landed in this page. Then I read Martin Pools:

I think in some way it is the closest I have come to WabiSabi in code

I did not know what WabiSabi was. So I clicked on the link. And then another and then another. Here are a couple of steps of this journey. You can make your own.

Wiki is an eternal now.

It is timeless. Anything can be deleted at any time, but everything that has not been on RecentChanges for a while stands on equal footing. Nobody has done anything like this before. Wiki’s growth will outstrip any attempt to change it. Wiki is its own history. It is a good history, and it will guide growth over time because it is a living document of what Wiki is and has been.

In some respects, Wiki’s group mind works just like a human’s:

  • RecentChanges represents Wiki’s conscious mind and short term memory – what it is thinking about right now.
  • Wiki’s subconscious and long term memory is represented by all the past pages that are related to current topics, and connected to them by links/associations on Wiki as well as in the contributor’s/reader’s heads.

Sometimes, Wiki seems a little unconcentrated (several seemingly unrelated, “off-topic” pages on RecentChanges). But be careful not to judge prematurely – maybe it’s just Wiki’s subconscious mind at work, and these things are subtly related. If Wiki can’t make the connections, the thought will quickly vanish. — FalkBruegmann

There is something beautiful about reading this – a feeling difficult to describe. There is a wealth of information in this wiki. It is true wiki’s group mind at work. Explore it. Try Abstraction, for example.