---
date: '2024-12-13'
description: and the manifestation of the dynabook
id: malleable software
modified: 2026-06-05 15:08:25 GMT-04:00
tags:
  - seed
title: malleable software
created: '2024-12-13'
published: '2024-12-13'
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slug: thoughts/malleable-software
permalink: https://aarnphm.xyz/thoughts/malleable-software.md
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full: https://aarnphm.xyz/llms-full.txt
---
## for the age of [[thoughts/LLMs|LLMs]]

_excerpt from [Geoffrey Lit’s essay](https://www.geoffreylitt.com/2023/03/25/llm-end-user-programming.html)_

## tool for thought

[Maggie’s essay](https://maggieappleton.com/tools-for-thought), [Andy Matuschak’s essay](https://numinous.productions/ttft/)

think of PKM, HCI, CSCW, knowledge graph

Bottom-up thinking from [[thoughts/Hypertext|hypertext]], or

a plethora of new _series of applications for application for tool for thoughts_

> became an _idea machine_ [^machine]

[^machine]: backed by people, companies, from Nadia Asparouhova’s [Idea Machines](https://nadia.xyz/idea-machines) (2022)

> \[!question\] What if we consider TFT as a set of _cultural practices_, rather than computational objects?
>
> Think of maps, arabic numerals, and zettelkasten, are essentially cultural practices, as a part of [[thoughts/representations]]

> We don’t know whether the apps or the cultural practices enables the <mark>tool for thought</mark>

> \[!question\] computer should be a medium, and how does this has to do with computer?
>
> tool for thoughts are rooted from HCI
>
> See also [[thoughts/papers/Notation as a Tool of Thoughts - Iversion - 1979.pdf|Notation as a Tool of Thoughts]]

We think of these as medium as programmers:

- medium is an expression
- Tool enable workflows

> Most of what we have think in history are usually Computational Medium of thoughts

## What should we do?

1. We need more grounding in cognitive science: embodied cognition, mind theory, ethnographic research.

   Thinkers:

   - Andy Clark (Natural born cyborgs):
     - hypermind hypothesis: in relationship between our brains and surrounding
   - Gorge Lakoff and Mark Johnson (Metaphors We Live By)
   - Barbara Tversky (Mind in Motion)
   - Tim Ingold
   - Bruno Latour
   - Maurice Merleau-Ponty
   - Marshall McLuhan
   - Don Norman

   > \[!question\] Question
   >
   > How do we represent spatial and aural tools for thoughts?

2. Complementary not competitive artifacts

   Competitive: makes you reliant on the tool (google maps)

   Complementary: teach you intuition (compass)

3. Focus on studying existing cultural practices, not computational objects

   - Spatial memory (building memory palace)
   - Classical rhetoric
   - logical fallacies, uncover biases, question assumptions
   - statistics and its lies
   - Information literacy

   Daniel Dennett’s “Intuition pumps to check your reasoning”:

   - Rappoprt’s rules
   - Joosting
   - Rathering

> tools gives users new lenses and see world through emergent properties

> \[!question\] Question
>
> system vs computational objects?

See also Pierre Levy in “Becoming Virtual”

> \[!question\] Question
>
> Cultural practices are inherently malleable, as are pre-computational systems like numerals and poetry
> and Zettelkasten, but modern apps like Google Maps are not.
> Is malleability a necessary property of a tool for thought that effectively mobilizes cultural practices?

> \[!question\] Question
>
> Why programming is so textual?

Text are efficient for embedding format, and become a limitations of spaces and memory.