AI: Summary
The session explored how knowledge might move beyond static documents toward dynamic, spatial, and participatory forms, especially in XR. Discussion centered on whether we are approaching something like an “ultimate wisdom library,” not as a repository of answers, but as an environment where knowledge can be re-shaped, contextualized, and interacted with in ways that support understanding, disagreement, and growth.
AI: Highlights
Fabien Bénétou described work at the Imaginary Institute in Brussels, where structured “protocols” are used to provoke imagination, embodiment, and shifts in worldview, arguing that deliberate discomfort and enactment can generate new perspectives relevant to XR and knowledge work.
Frode Hegland introduced the deliberately provocative idea of an “ultimate wisdom library,” emphasizing that wisdom is not contained in documents but emerges through changeable interfaces, transparent metadata, and the ability to see and reshape connections across knowledge.
Rob Swigart shared a metaphor distinguishing data, information, knowledge, and wisdom as layered and contextual rather than linear, reinforcing that wisdom surrounds and grows from use, not storage.
Peter Wasilko articulated a vision of libraries as living collections that can be visualized over time, annotated socially, and explored through evolving structures, while remaining sensitive to privacy and individual choice.
Mark Anderson stressed that maps, documents, and standards always encode assumptions, that gaps and disagreements are inevitable, and that progress requires working with real data rather than idealized abstractions.
Ken Perlin emphasized preserving the integrity and focus of authored works, cautioning that augmentation should support reading without overwhelming or displacing the original experience.
AI: Insights
Wisdom was repeatedly reframed as a process rather than a property, emerging from interaction, revision, and exposure to disagreement rather than from authoritative completeness.
Spatialization in XR was treated less as a visual novelty and more as a way to surface relationships, histories, and alternative structures that traditional linear documents suppress.
The group implicitly converged on the idea that metadata must remain revisable and probabilistic, especially for identity, authorship, and authority, since new evidence can always overturn earlier assumptions.
A tension emerged between focus and serendipity: books and linear texts excel at sustained attention, while spatial and linked environments excel at discovery, suggesting systems must allow fluid movement between these modes.
There was a shared recognition that many failures in digital knowledge systems stem not from missing technology but from discarding structured data at publication and privileging frozen formats over living ones.
AI: Resources Mentioned
Imaginary Institute, Brussels, linked to the Free University of Brussels, mentioned by Fabien Bénétou.
Zotero, cited by Fabien Bénétou as an example of open, extensible infrastructure for references and shared metadata.
CSL (Citation Style Language), discussed by Mark Anderson and Fabien Bénétou as a powerful but poorly accessible standard.
Apple TV series “Pluribus,” mentioned by Frode Hegland as a thought experiment about consensus and disagreement.
Edward Tufte’s books on information design, referenced by Mark Anderson in relation to layout and context.
Ted Nelson’s Literary Machines, referenced by Mark Anderson in discussion of non-linear documents and publishing constraints.
This track is an AI orchestrated piece inspired by the transcript of this meeting, meant as a fun provocation to further thought. (suno.com)