Tools for Thought as Cultural Practices, not Computational Objects

There are and research groups and thought leaders and . But more than anything, people are using the term to describe a new class of software. Tools for thought is now a category tag in the databases of venture capital firms. The phrase appears on the landing page of every hot new knowledge management app:

Even when it doesn't appear verbatim, we can see it in the subtext. These tools are here to help you “think better,” and “achieve more”.

These software apps appear to have a clear vision of what a "tool for thought" is. It appears to involve writing notes, connecting them to one another, exploring dynamic views, and then experiencing a kind of emergent wisdom. An enchanting promise.

Yet there's something paradoxical here; the phrase itself and the way we're collectively using it feel misaligned. Taken at face value, the phrase tool for thought doesn't have the word 'computer' or 'digital' anywhere in it. It suggests nothing about software systems or interfaces. It's simply meant to refer to tools that help humans think thoughts; potentially new, different, and better kinds of thoughts than we currently think.

While this might seem like a dumb rhetorical question, what does any of this have to do with computers?

I think it's a question worth answering explicitly and comprehensively. If only to make clear to ourselves why we currently consider apps that allow you to link notes together the epitome of a tool for thought.

We're a bit too early in the establishment of this concept for anyone to have written a canonical definition yet. And like all significantly complex ideas, any proposed ones will be contested and controversial.

We can, however, get a rough estimation by looking at descriptions from some of the key texts we pass around the community. A tool for thought is...

Looking a these, it's easy to think of plenty of examples from human history of tools for thought that fit the bill. Here's a brief list:

1. Written language – 3200 BCE

2. Drawing – ~73,000 years ago

3. Maps – 700 BCE

4. Hindu-arabic numerals – 400 BCE

5. Epic poetry as oral history – ~2000 BCE

6. The socratic method – 500 BCE

7. The scientific method – 1000~1400 BCE

8. Cartesian coordinates – 1637

9. Zettelkastens – 1500s

10. Aboriginal songlines – ~60,000 years ago

11. Spreadsheets

12. Data visualisation – 1785

Each of these examples profoundly transformed the kinds of thoughts humans can think. They expanded our cognitive abilities and allowed us to solve problems that would otherwise be unsolvable.

It might feel strange to call some of these things “tools”. The scientific and Socratic methods seem more like techniques for problem-solving. While drawing and writing are surely mediums or representations of ideas rather than “tools”?

Part of this discomfort is a limitation of language. “Tool” is a tricky category that we most often associate with physical objects. But we also use it to refer to less tangible techniques and mediums: fire, software development kits, slam poetry, democratic voting systems, design thinking, metaphors, and Google search filters are also called “tools.”

I do think there's a meaningful distinction between tools and mediums: Mediums are a means of communicating a thought or expressing an idea. Tools are a means of working in a medium. Tools enable specific tasks and workflows within a medium. Cameras are a tool that let people express ideas through photography. Blogs are a tool that lets people express ideas through written language. JavaScript is a tool that let people express ideas through programming. Tools and mediums require each other. This makes lines between them fuzzy. And I'm unconvinced there's much utility in sharpening them.

I'm going to proceed with a generous definition of “tool” for the rest of this piece. We could spend time splitting hairs and trying to hash out these categories. Or we could plough on by accepting any object, cultural practice, technique, or medium that expands human abilities as a tool.

This gives us a mental model that looks something like this:

Most of the examples I listed above are cultural practices and techniques. They are primary ways of doing; specific ways of thinking and acting that result in greater cognitive abilities. Ones that people pass down from generation to generation through culture.

Every one of these also pre-dates digital computers by at least a few hundred years, if not thousands or tens of thousands. Given that framing, it's time to return to the question of how computation, software objects, and note-taking apps fit into this narrative.

My simple interpretation of “tools for thought” up to this point takes the phrase at face value – devoid of any historical context. Any sincere and holistic exploration of the phrase has to consider who came up with the term, and what particular cultural and historical contexts they were part of.

If you look around at the commonly cited “major thinkers” in this space, you get a list of computer programmers: Kenneth Iverson, J.C.R. Licklider, Vannevar Bush, Alan Kay, Bob Taylor, Douglas Englebart, Seymour Papert, Bret Victor, and Howard Rheingold, among others.

I would be remiss not to point out all of these figures are male, white, from North America, and associated with various prestigious technical universities such as MIT, Caltech, Stanford, and UC Berkley. Most were hanging out in California from the 1960s up through the 1990s working on advances in networked computing, personal computing, and interface design. This demographic is so overwhelmingly consistent that they're sometimes called the “patriarchs” of tools for thought.

This is relevant because it means these men share a lot of the same beliefs, values, and context. They know the same sorts of people, learned the same historical stories in school and were taught to see the world in particular kinds of ways. Most of them worked together, or are at most one personal connection away from the next. Tools for thought is a community scene as much as it's a concept.

This gives tools for thought a distinctly computer-oriented, male, American, middle-class flavour. The term has always been used in relation to a dream that is deeply intertwined with digital machines, white-collar knowledge work, and bold American optimism.

A History of Computational TFT

The phrase itself is not that old. It was first used by Kenneth Iverson in his research work on programming notation throughout the 1950s and '60s.. His first public paper mentioning it is published by the ACM in .

Iverson argued that establishing shared notation within a discipline – be it biological, mathematical, or programmatic – can relieve our working memory and compress complex meanings into concise forms.

Notation is only one small aspect of the larger tools for thought vision. While Iverson was the first to give this philosophy a distinct name, others were already exploring many of the same themes using different terms.

Back in published an essay titled in both The Atlantic and Life Magazine – two publications with a wide readership. In it, he proposed the , an imaginary “memory extension” machine that would help people explore information and craft their own hyperlinked research journeys through it. Many of the later thinkers in the tools for thought movement cite this article as a key influence.

This is one of the earliest visions of how computers might be able to augment human cognitive capacities. Others soon took up the mantle.

built on Vannevar's ideas throughout the 1950s and '60s while teaching at MIT. His article predicts a future where "men and computers cooperate in making decisions and controlling complex situations." Where we would have marvels like “computer-posted wall displays” for critical data, and “automatic human speech production and recognition.”

That all sound quite banal to us now. We have plenty of giant dashboards and voice assistants. Every decision made in complex situations like government, infrastructure engineering, medicine, or law involves extensive (hu)man-computer collaboration and augmentation. We have already achieved many of the wildest dreams of this generation. Computers are deeply integrated into every institution. And every individual life. They are affordable, easily accessible, and always available. Literally in our pockets.

But simply because we've drastically improved human-computer collaboration since doesn't mean we've peaked. It's still unclear how much our current status quo helps or hinders our capacity to deal with complex problems. The work of helps shed some light on this. His extensive essay has become another touchstone for the community. It proposes a more ambitious vision for using computers to extend our cognitive abilities.

Englebart was specifically concerned with our ability to deal with complex problems, rather than simply “amplifying intelligence.” Being able to win a chess match is perceived as intelligent, but it isn't helping us tackle systemic racism or inequality. Englebart argued we should instead focus on “augmenting human intellect” in ways that help us find solutions to wicked problems. While he painted visions of how computers could facilitate this, he also pointed to organisational structures, system dynamics, and effective training as part of this puzzle.

After Bush, Licklider, and Englebart's well-publicised presentations and writing made the rounds, many other thinkers became interested in the problem of expanding human reasoning with machines. proposed plenty of for storing, connecting, and organising ideas. Researchers at like and developed the foundations of personal computing – graphical interfaces, ethernet, WYSIWYG word-processing, and the desktop metaphor. These inventions changed computers from large, corporate calculation machines into personal devices used in every home and school.

Kay would go on to become one of the leading voices of tools for thought. In essays like “” and “ ” he paints a vision of thinking with computers that go beyond what we've achieved so far. In recent years he's become fond of the line “the personal computing revolution hasn't happened yet” – meaning since the initial advances in the '70s and '80s, we've failed to make significant progress towards real computational tools for thought.

Much of the history I've just swept through is covered in Howard Rheingold's book – an account of major innovations that led to the personal computer and the philosophical lineage of those building it. Michael Hiltzik's is another good chronicle of the work done at Xerox PARC. There is also an edited collection of key texts in this domain called that I've heard multiple people call “the bible of tools for thought.”

Notice how all of these thinkers exclusively focus on computers as essential to enabling new ways of thinking. They aren't exploring how meditation, architecture, complementary medicine, or music composition might enable new kinds of thoughts. The computer is vital.

There is a rich literature of research and insight into how we might expand human thought that sometimes feels entirely detached from the history we just covered. Cognitive scientists and philosophers have been tackling questions about the relationship between cognition, our tools, and our physical environments for centuries. Well before microprocessors and hypertext showed up. Oddly, they're rarely cited by the computer scientists.

This alternate intellectual lineage is still asking the question “how can we develop better tools for thinking?” But they don't presume the answer revolves around computers.

Seven years before Rheingold published his book “Tools for Thought,” another book was published with the same name. In , the biologist and philosopher released a book exploring the nature of complex systems. He discussed philosophies and problem-solving tools for wicked problems. Computers are mentioned in passing – as one tool among many – but are never the focus.

Philosopher has spent his career exploring how external tools transform and expand human cognition. His book argues humans have “always been

Clark argues “the mind” isn't simply a set of functions within the brain, but a process that happens between our bodies and the physical environment. Intelligence emerges at the intersection of humans and tools. He expanded on this idea in a follow-on book called . It became known as the . It's the strong version of theories like , , and that are all the rage in cognitive science departments.

Embodied cognition

The main arguments of embodied cognition are that our thoughts and cognitive processes are influenced by and arise from our bodily experiences and sensorimotor interactions with the world. This view challenges the traditional idea that the mind is a separate, abstract entity that is independent of the body, and instead proposes that the mind is embodied and situated in the physical world. Proponents of embodied cognition argue that our perceptions, concepts, and cognitive processes are shaped by the physical structures of our body and the sensory experiences it provides, and that cognition cannot be fully understood without considering the bodily basis of our experiences.