(forthcoming 2024)

Our theme for the fifth volume is to develop richer views of what lies beyond our current understanding of the potential for text.

As we start with the rectangular page and move into the extends reality of VR and AR, how might how we read and write change? How might traditional text change with what we learn in extended environments?

Imagine our understanding expressed as a sphere–like the one below–where everything outside the circle is beyond our current understanding. The circumference of the sphere is the size of the boundary between what we know and what we know we don’t know.

What is interesting is that as the size of the circle of our understanding grows, so does the circumference–making the boundary between what we understand and what was previously beyond our understanding larger: The circumference indicates the size of our increasing understanding of what lies beyond our understanding.

This visually illustrates what Albert Einstein meant by:

“The more I learn, the more I realise how much I don’t know.”

   

As we are based around a research lab and a wider research and intellectual community, we therefore seek to increase our understanding of the potentials for the future of text and to increase the size of the boundary of what we understand what lies beyond our understanding, not just our understanding in itself. This can only come from deep dialog with in a widely inclusive community and through experiments to experience different ways to interact with knowledge transmitted in textual form.

Note: I do not know where I first came across this way of looking at it and I cannot find the source online. If you know who came up with this clever visualisation, please let me know so I can credit correctly.

Reader Software

As always, volume V will be released as a standard PDF which is compatible with any PDF viewer. However, if you are on macOS, please consider viewing the book with our free software ‘Reader’, the software designed with a focus on this series of books: www.augmentedtext.info

Student Competition

We are planning a Student Competition for 2024. Details to follow, but here is the current draft page.

Enquiries

If you have any questions email the editor Frode Alexander Hegland : frode@hegland.com This is a passion project and I’m passionate about improving the book where possible.

Legal

We encourage readers to share links to this page where anyone may download a complimentary copy of the PDF Edition. Note that we retain copyright to the file. If you wish to host or mirror it on another site, please let us know at frode@hegland.com

All articles are © Copyright of their respective authors. This collected work is © Copyright ‘Future Text Publishing’ and Frode Alexander Hegland 2020-2023.