Brainstorming session

How do I make a 3D "folder" displaying its elements and connections between them?

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Povilas S Oct 05, 2020

it programming

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New data management systems

Juran Oct 06, 2020

Povilas S5 months ago

Thanks for such an informative contribution! Yes, the last option - 3D file manager is basically what I'm looking for (or close to it). But it doesn't seem to be available to actually install and use. It's probably only for Linux? It was created 17 years ago, maybe it didn't gain enough popularity, etc., but seems really cool. About 2D vs 3D - yes, 2D is more convenient for general, simplified use when you don't have or want interconnectedness involved, but when you do, then 3D appears (at least to me) to be nicer and easier for a few reasons. You could have interconnectedness visualized in 2d - it would look like a web or a mandala, etc., but it's just not that good as 3D, it lacks the space to put many elements there (compared to 3D). You also have 360 directions (roughly speaking) to go to make a connection and in 3D you have 360 squared. In 2D you also can't flip a thing in so many different angles and investigate the connections from spacial perspective. But probably the main reason is psychological - when you imagine and connect things in your mind, there's a mental space there, you don't make 2D diagrams (at least I don't), it's kind of structured in space - past has its place, future has its place, different memories, dreams, ideas have their place, but they all have a 3D feel, it's like a mental 3D map. We take input from a 3D world we live in and then reconstruct a projection in our minds and store it there, but that projection is not like a desktop screen, it's more like a movie, but not with a single timeline, kind of messy, multilayered, at least that's how I perceive it. And mind recalls things mostly (or only) by association. So those kind of digital 3D models would be more close to how we connect things in our mind and might help to better remember and understand those connections consciously. About 3D stuff using a lot of computer’s processing power – I don’t know about that, that might be a problem, but on the other hand 3D modeling programs work by the same principle and they do much more complicated stuff than just that, I think this would be like a very simple 3D modeling program and shouldn’t use much resources.

Can Python do it?

Shubhankar Kulkarni Oct 06, 2020

Povilas S5 months ago

Thank you! I have some basics of Python, but that's all, I'm really on a kindergarten level. I know there are at least few if not many extensions for Python to help you make certain things easier. Did you make it with general Python or some sort of extension? And did you make it like a separate program or was it somehow incorporated and run through Python itself? About your questions - it's both for visualization and storage, but mostly for visualization and also for simply making connections in an easy way, because now all you can do is simply place similar elements into the same folder. So you need many separate folders if you have a more complicated net of connections and it's not very practical, to say the least. You could paint 2D diagrams for this, but 3D is even better and this kind of system would combine the functions of storing, connecting, and visualizing at the same time. I think this would be very useful for creative process. Two most important aspects of it are association and visualization. This is also true for memory. This would help to remember creative associations by visualizing them. That's a bit how the mind itself works, you just don't always clearly realize the connections and therefore they appear random or subconscious. Not necessarily a cube, could be a sphere also. You could use different shapes for different types of elements, but probably a sphere and a cube would be two most useful types. Could be no shape at all, just elements in a digital space, but by putting them into a confined shape I want to emphasize that it's a set of elements in a kind of container, like a folder, so cube seems to be maybe the best, sphere is a more undefined (in a sense) shape.

Shubhankar Kulkarni5 months ago

Povilas S5 months ago

How do I make a 3D "folder" displaying its elements and connections between them?

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