Notational intelligence | thesephist.com

The Nugget

Inventing better notations can significantly enhance our ability to understand and manipulate complex ideas, ultimately increasing our effective intelligence beyond what automated tools can offer.

Make it stick

✍️ Writing crystallizes thoughts: When you write, you transform fleeting thoughts into durable, concrete marks you can manipulate.
💡 Good notation embodies abstraction: It lets us handle abstract ideas with the same ease as physical objects.
📈 Mathematical notation's power: Enables precise representation and manipulation of infinite and complex quantities.
🧠 Think in notations: We use notations not just as tools but as an intrinsic part of our thought process.

Writing systems are the most influential notations, transforming ephemeral spoken ideas into enduring, concrete forms.
Mathematical notation's rigidity and standardization allow for precise and expansive manipulation of quantitative ideas.
Music and dance notations provide frameworks for complex and precise representation of performative arts, though video and digital media are now enhancing these notations.

Unambiguity: Symbols must have a unique interpretation within their domain.
Expressiveness: The notation should comprehensively describe all necessary ideas within its domain.
Suggestiveness: Similar concepts should have similar notational representations.
Natural transformation: The operations within the notation should have a visual or conceptual ease that mirrors the actual manipulation of the ideas.

Computable notation like programming languages manipulates not only numbers but also abstract symbols, enabling mechanical execution of complex tasks.
Wolfram Language exemplifies dynamic and media-inclusive notation, showing potential for future interactive and versatile notations.

Intelligence as run-time adaptation: Reaction and adaptation to real-time environments offer evolutionary advantages.
Generalization power: The core of intelligence, allowing broad application of abstract patterns to novel problems.
Intelligence as data compression: Efficiently retaining useful information while discarding irrelevant details and adapting to future uncertainties.

Dynamic notation: Leveraging software interactivity to create more manipulable, immersive representations of ideas.
Design guidelines: Improving representations of complex and abstract concepts could lead to new discoveries and problem-solving frameworks.
Combining interactivity with notation: Creating tools for direct manipulation of concepts to facilitate intuitive understanding and experimentation.

"Writing was not just a way to record what someone said; it could help you decide what you would say before you said it."
"We think in languages; we think with notations."
"Better notation can enable us to imagine and discover new ideas entirely."
"Good notation gives us the ability to work with abstract concepts using the same cognitive muscles we use to work with physical objects."
"When humans and AI models learn, they are both fundamentally asking, I can’t remember everything – what can I efficiently forget, so I’m best prepared for the future?"

This summary contains AI-generated information and may be misleading or incorrect.