"Bud took a seat and skimmed a mediatron from the coffee table; it looked exactly like a dirty, wrinkled, blank sheet of paper. "'Annals of Self-Protection,'" h

"Bud took a seat and skimmed a mediatron from the coffee table; it looked exactly like a dirty, wrinkled, blank sheet of paper. "'Annals of Self-Protection,'" he said, loud enough for everyone else in the place to hear him. The logo of his favorite meedfeed coalesced on the page. Mediaglyphics, mostly the cool animated ones, arranged themselves in a grid. Bud scanned through them until he found the one that denoted a comparison of a bunch of different stuff, and snapped at it with his fingernail. New mediaglyphics appeared, surrounding larger pictures in which Annals staff tested several models of skull guns against live and dead targets." Animated icons it is. There is also a mention of these symbols in Anathem. I haven't got an impression that author sees them as a higher form of communication, rather they are a more "secular" form. Btw, I have under 200 program icons in the launcher of my phone, they are arranged (or better word disarranged) in a grid by alphabet or installation time, some are in folders. I know the position of frequently used ones but for rare used ones nothing is better then good old search by letters.