Wow, Chris Abraham leaves the kind of comment on one of my OSN05 posts that really deserves more than comment status.
Essentially I was trying to describe a semi-latticed environment in the usual “So how do you draw a circle in Fireworks?” kind of way and Chris commented that he sees the online environment more as:
“Cascading, realtional, asynchronous call-call-response ripples. And although those diagrams above make a lot of sense, I do believe that the true diagram would look more like raindrops rippling in concentric circles, interfering, intermingling, comingling, and then becoming still (or at least invisible to the naked eye) until reanimated (or amplified) by new rain drops. Without the energy of the rain, the water returns to balance. The Internet, like the pond, is merely a neutral solution in which things (sound, light, color, dye, etc) can be suspended or introduced. Without external energy, entropy takes over and then, to return to my analogy, the pond is again a placid mirror, glassy and neutral.” [Chris Abraham]
Fantastic.