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> text is the most powerful, useful, effective communication technology ever, period. On the other hand, many (technical/mathematical) concepts are more effect

> text is the most powerful, useful, effective communication technology ever, period. On the other hand, many (technical/mathematical) concepts are more effectively explained using diagrams/images. E.g. the very visual approach taken in Mathologer videos [1] makes difficult, esoteric, mathematical ideas accessible to a wider audience. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ8pnCO0nTY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ8pnCO0nTY

DanBC 6y ago
Yes. See also Florence Nightingale using rose diagrams to illustrate preventable excess deaths to infection during war. https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/coxcomb-diagram-1858/ https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/coxcomb-diagram-1858/
smoe 6y ago
Also where does text end and diagrams/images start? E.g where does musical notation stand? For an untrained eye it is just a bunch of lines, dots and squiggles but others will read it like text and much more efficiently so than if it were written words. Similarly the example about the Wikipedia text of human rights being supposedly impossible to convey via image. But what does the text convey to you if you don’t speak English?
- shash 6y ago
  Also, what does it convey if translated into (say) Egyptian hieroglyphs, if you're an ancient Egyptian who can read hieroglyphs...
  - mannykannot 6y ago
    Hieroglyph writers have to resort to tricks like punning to express ideas that are not simple pictures. There's a reason why written language became more abstract.
- Lichtso 6y ago
  > Also where does text end and diagrams/images start? Text is the written form of language. And language is defined as a sequence of symbols. Thus, text is a subset of diagrams. Arbitrary diagrams can be of any topology (e.g. DAGs or even have cycles), however text always is of sequential topology (or a hierarchy as there is an isomorphic mapping to sequences). Basically, if there is a canonical way of reading it out loud, then it has an explicit sequence and is thus text. By that rule it follows that: Musical notation is text as it is strictly sequential (in time) and maybe hierarchical if there are multiple tracks. Most mathematical notations are text, as they are also sequential, even matrices are only a hierarchy of sequences which in turn can be serialized. Chemical / molecular diagrams are not text, they can contain cycles. Same goes for electronic and logic circuit schematics or rail way diagrams found in public transportation. > Similarly the example about the Wikipedia text of human rights being supposedly impossible to convey via image Schematics and diagrams are only use full if / because they are subject to a certain defined visual vocabulary. So if you had a visual vocabulary in that domain then you could express them as a diagram.
flukus 6y ago
On the other, other hand. I find text far superior for creating and editing technical diagrams and images. Give my graphviz over any GUI editor to do the same. In this case the diagrams are good for communication but terrible for expression, I think this distinction is being overlooked by many here.

DanBC 6y ago

Yes. See also Florence Nightingale using rose diagrams to illustrate preventable excess deaths to infection during war. https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/coxcomb-diagram-1858/ https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/coxcomb-diagram-1858/

smoe 6y ago

Also where does text end and diagrams/images start? E.g where does musical notation stand? For an untrained eye it is just a bunch of lines, dots and squiggles but others will read it like text and much more efficiently so than if it were written words. Similarly the example about the Wikipedia text of human rights being supposedly impossible to convey via image. But what does the text convey to you if you don’t speak English?

shash 6y ago
Also, what does it convey if translated into (say) Egyptian hieroglyphs, if you're an ancient Egyptian who can read hieroglyphs...
- mannykannot 6y ago
  Hieroglyph writers have to resort to tricks like punning to express ideas that are not simple pictures. There's a reason why written language became more abstract.
Lichtso 6y ago
> Also where does text end and diagrams/images start? Text is the written form of language. And language is defined as a sequence of symbols. Thus, text is a subset of diagrams. Arbitrary diagrams can be of any topology (e.g. DAGs or even have cycles), however text always is of sequential topology (or a hierarchy as there is an isomorphic mapping to sequences). Basically, if there is a canonical way of reading it out loud, then it has an explicit sequence and is thus text. By that rule it follows that: Musical notation is text as it is strictly sequential (in time) and maybe hierarchical if there are multiple tracks. Most mathematical notations are text, as they are also sequential, even matrices are only a hierarchy of sequences which in turn can be serialized. Chemical / molecular diagrams are not text, they can contain cycles. Same goes for electronic and logic circuit schematics or rail way diagrams found in public transportation. > Similarly the example about the Wikipedia text of human rights being supposedly impossible to convey via image Schematics and diagrams are only use full if / because they are subject to a certain defined visual vocabulary. So if you had a visual vocabulary in that domain then you could express them as a diagram.

flukus 6y ago

On the other, other hand. I find text far superior for creating and editing technical diagrams and images. Give my graphviz over any GUI editor to do the same. In this case the diagrams are good for communication but terrible for expression, I think this distinction is being overlooked by many here.