I had several objections to this, and then did some standard debiasing and came up with an obvious-in-retrospect obvious solution within less than five minutes, here to anchor your judgment for my dark-artsy pleasures! Unfortunately, the original idea I had relies on technologies and their widespread use that are barely being hinted at by obscure high-tech lab projects like Steve Mann’s EyeTap and Google’s Glass, so here’s the toned-down version that at least fixes some of the issues for internet discussion boards. [1]
The obvious solution I mention is to write a (browser) script that maintains a database of jargon terms or keywords or unconventional definitions or abstract concepts, along with links to places that explain them, and an easy and convenient way to add new jargon to it. This script would unobtrusively (based on my scripting experience, this “unobtrusive” part and the “easy to add new jargon” are probably the two tallest orders and most difficult parts of such a project) suggest linking / referencing (or perhaps also allow for one-click substitution / inserting an explanation of the concept) whenever it detects the keywords.
The base concept would be that it work like the automatic spell-checking dictionaries (e.g. the one integrated in most versions of Firefox), but instead of suggesting corrections to common words, it would suggest links and references for specialized jargon and obscure terms.
1: (The original idea I had involved automatic personal databases and inter-device communication that compared those databases and offered automatic substitutions or transmitted link references when there were mismatches between two users’ data, so that you’d just keep on using jargon and terms that you understand differently from your audience would be automatically (or by suggestion) adjusted for possible misunderstandings or have explanatory notes / links to references attached to them, even during normal in-person conversation. I take my living-in-the-future ideals very seriously. )
Slightly side-tracked:
I had several objections to this, and then did some standard debiasing and came up with an obvious-in-retrospect obvious solution within less than five minutes, here to anchor your judgment for my dark-artsy pleasures! Unfortunately, the original idea I had relies on technologies and their widespread use that are barely being hinted at by obscure high-tech lab projects like Steve Mann’s EyeTap and Google’s Glass, so here’s the toned-down version that at least fixes some of the issues for internet discussion boards. [1]
The obvious solution I mention is to write a (browser) script that maintains a database of jargon terms or keywords or unconventional definitions or abstract concepts, along with links to places that explain them, and an easy and convenient way to add new jargon to it. This script would unobtrusively (based on my scripting experience, this “unobtrusive” part and the “easy to add new jargon” are probably the two tallest orders and most difficult parts of such a project) suggest linking / referencing (or perhaps also allow for one-click substitution / inserting an explanation of the concept) whenever it detects the keywords.
The base concept would be that it work like the automatic spell-checking dictionaries (e.g. the one integrated in most versions of Firefox), but instead of suggesting corrections to common words, it would suggest links and references for specialized jargon and obscure terms.
1: (The original idea I had involved automatic personal databases and inter-device communication that compared those databases and offered automatic substitutions or transmitted link references when there were mismatches between two users’ data, so that you’d just keep on using jargon and terms that you understand differently from your audience would be automatically (or by suggestion) adjusted for possible misunderstandings or have explanatory notes / links to references attached to them, even during normal in-person conversation. I take my living-in-the-future ideals very seriously. )