An Itinerant Mind

Ideonomy Project - taster.

I feel a little as though I've just done a deal with the devil. Well, not quite, but I have had a very interesting conversation with an AI about Ideonomy.

Ideonomy has interested me ever since I first came across it in 'A History of Knowledge - Past, Present and Future' by Charles Van Doren. That was 14-15 years ago.

Ideonomy is a science of ideas. A very ambitious project created by the late Patrick Gunkel, who achieved a modicum of interest for the idea in the late 80's, even appearing in The Wall Street Journal. Sadly he died in 2017, never having realised any of his plans for the project.

Part of the idea of ideonomy involved the construction of what Gunkel termed 'organons'. This word he borrowed from Aristotle, but Gunkel used it to mean any tool that aids or fosters the creation of ideas. He stated that he thought the science of ideonomy would require tens of thousands of these organons, and that this would require the work of hundreds of collaborators working for many years.

Of course, there were no powerful Artificial Intelligences available to him in the 1980s.

I talked to ChatGPT about ideonomy, and the idea of using AI's to help create organons. It was extremely helpful, and even seemed enthusiastic - not something I expected from an AI. In less than an hour it had sketched out a project, and made suggestions as to how to go about it. One key suggestion involved identifying possible collaborators.

The project greatly interests me - overlapping as it does with many of my interests. So, I am seriously considering beginning it in earnest. A truly terrifying thought, since I think it has the potential to be all consuming. However if anyone reading this feels that they are interested in the idea, please let me know.