The simplest protocol ever

Open Web Mind is a knowledge hypergraph.

The nodes represent the concepts in our minds.

The hyperedges represent the connections between them.

Fire propagates from node to node along hyperedges.

And... that’s it.

It’s the simplest protocol ever.

So how can something so simple hold something as complex as humanity’s mind?

The hypergraph in your head

The quickest way to answer this question is to look inside your head.

There are a hundred billion neurons in your brain, and they’re all more or less the same.

Sure, there’s some structure.

Different regions of your brain have different functions.

But there’s a whole lot less structure than you might think.

If one region of your brain is injured, another region can adapt to assume the damaged region’s functions.

Neurons are more or less interchangeable. Each of the neurons in your brain receives signals from other neurons along dendrites and, if it fires, transmits those signals to other neurons along axons.

So neurons are a little like the nodes of a hypergraph.

And their dendrites and axons are a little like hyperedges.

Actually, neurons are a lot like the nodes of a hypergraph.

And their dendrites and axons are a lot like hyperedges.

Your mind is a hypergraph in your head.

Differentiation

You wouldn’t have thought that this undifferentiated mesh of neurons could give rise to all the different thoughts that occupy your mind.

But it turns out that this is the way intelligence works: human intelligence, artificial intelligence... and Open Web Mind, too.

The neurons in your brain might all be the same, but each of them fires under different circumstances.

Some fire when photons fall on the rods and cones of your retinas.

Others fire when those patterns of light are resolved into lines, shapes and objects.

Still others fire when these objects are mapped to higher-level concepts: clouds, rocks, trees, lizards.

And some neurons fire when you think of abstract ideas: beauty, truth; space, time; entities, relationships.

It doesn’t matter that all the neurons in your brain are the same, because each of them represents a different concept.

And it doesn’t matter that all the dendrites and axons that connect these neurons are the same, because each of them represents a different connection.

The propagation of firing from neuron to neuron along dendrites and axons through that undifferentiated mesh of neurons in your brain mediates myriad different thoughts.

That’s the miracle of the hypergraph in your head: the stark simplicity of the neuron, relentlessly repeated, intricately interconnected, gives rise to the incredible complexity of your mind.

Getting out of our heads

It’s the same with Open Web Mind.

Open Web Mind is a hypergraph of nodes and hyperedges.

You wouldn’t have thought that a simple hypergraph could capture all human knowledge.

But it can.

It doesn’t matter that all the nodes in the hypergraph are the same...

...because each of them represents a different concept.

And it doesn’t matter that all the hyperedges that connect these nodes are the same...

...because each of them represents a different connection.

The propagation of fire from node to node along hyperedges through the hypergraph mediates myriad different thoughts.

That’s the miracle of Open Web Mind: the stark simplicity of the node, relentlessly repeated, intricately interconnected, gives rise to the incredible complexity of humanity’s mind.

The simplest protocol ever

There’s actually much more to tell about Open Web Mind:

• how different minds hold different knowledge;
• how the flow protocol allows us to flow from idea to idea;
• how the thinker allows us to think together;
• the specifics of the many minds and myriad nodes.

But at its core, Open Web Mind is a hypergraph of nodes and hyperedges.

Nothing more.

Nothing less.

It’s the simplest protocol ever.

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