"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms"
"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms."
— Murtel Rukeyser (1913 - 1980), "The Speed of Darkness"
Picture from the Library Walk in New York City.
Licence: Public Domain
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Library_Walk_6.JPG
Howdy, Stranger!
Comments
I disagree with this: all narratives are false. But other than that, I should visit the library walk.
GitHub. Erdős #2. Problems worthy of attack / prove their worth by hitting back. -- Piet Hein. Alter ego: Erel Dogg (not the first). CC BY-SA 4.0.
The quote made me think. What do we actually know about the world? How much of our knowledge is nothing but stories we tell ourselves and esch other?
I also like the visualization The linked books remind me of hypertext that is composed of linked texts.
The combination of both works for me as a piece of art. it's not "true" in a scientific or philosophical sense. But at some level it makes sense to me. I have a digital zettelkasten, because I'm a bookworm who likes hypertext. :-)
Perhaps the interesting question is not whether the universe is made of atoms or stories, but how stories emerge from creatures that themselves are made of atoms.
Initially I thought this thread was meant to stir things up (i.e., notes are made of stories, not of atomicity... haha), but there is a point in the quote.
Storytelling is likely the most effective way for us human beings to organize and pass down knowledge for survival. We had a much longer period of time in our evolutionary history where oral tradition was the main mode of communication. It's reasonable to think our brain is still better adapted to it.
Perhaps, techniques like Zettelkasten are maladaptive use of brain. Who knows.
The world is not a story. Our understanding of it often is. Storytelling may indeed be our default mode of organizing and transmitting knowledge. But perhaps that is precisely why systems like a Zettelkasten exist.
Stories are mostly linear, while reality often isn't. A plant, for example, simultaneously belongs to an evolutionary history, an ecosystem, a cultural history and countless personal observations. One story alone is rarely enough. Maybe a Zettelkasten is not an alternative to storytelling but a way to let multiple stories coexist and intersect.
@zettelsan And perhaps it isn't maladaptive at all. Human brains evolved for relatively small amounts of information. External systems such as writing, libraries and Zettelkästen may simply be cultural extensions that help us cope with complexity.