How Books Will Become Machines / quote 11 of 21
What is a regulated representation
A representation is a man-made material document that stands for something else, typically a complex, highly dimensional event or phenomenon. Example: A picture of a scene, a sculpture of a Greek hero, a theater play, a novel. To avoid any misunderstanding we shall make clear that a representation is always based on a material reality. A regulated representa- tion is a representation governed by a set of production and usage rules. These rules can be intrinsically embedded in the production process of the representation or the result of cultural conventions. Example of regulated representations: A list of names, an accounting table, a family tree, a flow-chart diagram, a map of a region, a printed book, a video, an encyclopedia, an Excel Sheet, a Powerpoint presentation. On the contrary, the production of a sculpture, a painting, a theater play are too weakly regulated by conventional rules to be considered as regulated representations. Although slightly different, this notion is inspired by the concept of intellectual technology developed by Pascal Robert in Mnémotechnologies.