Choosing sides.
In Robert Louis Stevenson's classic,
it's Dr. Jekyll's dark side that finds expression in Mr. Hyde. Throughout most
of this column I related to the process of hierarchical linking as something negative,
as the villain in my story. So perhaps I should have switched the roles in my
title.
But perhaps by calling my hierarchical linking the doctor, and my associative
linking the mister, I was suggesting that I fear that I can be overcome by associative
hypertext, that my hierarchical side is in danger of surrendering to the dangers
of associative linking run amok. Though many researchers identify associative
thought as a natural process, natural doesn't necessarily
always connote something positive. According to Hobbes, for instance, our natural
state is one of perpetual warfare. And let's not forget that we usually view processes
that we are powerless to stop as being negative. So perhaps my inability to stop
my associative linking proves that it comes from my negative side, and the title
is appropriate.
But just maybe it should be the other way around.
Go to: Dr. Hierarchy and Mr. Associative