Jagged noetic substrates

After Kyle Booten.

Cultivating or leveraging cognitive diversity by introducing irregularities, disruptions or deviations into intellectual/cognitive processes normally seen as smooth and linear.

Making sense of uneven, unstructured inputs?

A surface on which something grows or is attached? An increased surface area as a way of enhancing grip, traction, or adhesion, or catalysing reactions?

Generative potential. Booten works on computer-generated literature. Generative language models produce text that can seem raw, odd, “jagged” – yet this uneven substrate may catalyse new ideas and creative interpretations.

The jaggedness is key to the intellectual fertility of the noetic substrate.

Exploring the boundaries, limitations or blind spots of conventional reason by introducing uneven elements that don’t fit neatly, or need active repair.

• [?] What are the implications of this approach for pedagogy and learning? Could introducing uneven, challenging elements into learning materials/environments lead to deeper engagement and retention?

• [⎈] Consider how the notion of jaggedness/unevenness connects to aesthetic theories that emphasise roughness, irregularity, or the sublime.
• [⎈] Reflect on how introducing “jagged”, defamiliarising elements into familiar contexts can spur creative thinking by disrupting habitual patterns of perception and cognition; link with work on the role of novelty and surprise in creativity.

• [⎈] Examine how the interplay of multiple languages in the mind of a multilingual individual can enrich thought and communication.

• [&] See also: distributed cognition, surfaces?