Properties and Dimensions in Ideonomy

Here's a brief explanation of properties and dimensions in the context of ideonomy, as well as an example of how these concepts might be used when generating new ideas.

Enumerating Properties and Dimensions #

When considering a phenomenon, it may be helpful to think about the properties of that phenomenon. For example, let's say you're thinking about cars. Here's a list of some properties of cars- take a moment and see if you agree with the properties:

📋 Properties of Cars #

• Man-made (cars do not arise without humans)
• Heterogenous (there are many different types of cars)
• Non-hierarchical (there is not a strict hierarchy of cars)
• Short-lived (cars generally have sub-human lifespans)
• Complex (a car has many components that interact in a complex way)

Note: All lists on this page are unordered and non-exhaustive unless noted otherwise.

Some of these might be obvious, while some of them might be debatable. In any case, each of these properties also corresponds to a dimension - the space of possible properties along the same axis. Here are the dimensions corresponding to the properties above:

📋 Dimensions of Phenomena #

• Naturalness {Natural, Man-made} - Is it man-made or natural?
• Homogeneity {Homogenous, Heterogenous} - Is it all the same, or different?
• Hierarchicalness {Hierarchical, Non-hierarchical} - Does it involve a hierarchy, or is it non-hierarchical?
• Longevity {Long-lived, Short-lived, Equally-lived, Variably-lived} - Does it "live" for a longer or shorter time than a human?
• Complexity {Complex, Simple} - Is it complex or simple?

Dimensions generally consist of three parts: The name of the dimension, the possible property options for the dimension, and a question that could be asked about the phenomenon to determine the property of the dimension. The dimensions we've enumerated are very broad, but one could imagine more narrow dimensions (dimensions of machines, dimensions of man-made items, dimensions of individual cars, etc.).

Now that we've enumerated some Dimensions of Phenomena, we can apply them to a different phenomenon, trees:

📋 Properties of Trees #

• Naturalness: Natural
• Homogeneity: Heterogenous
• Hierarchicalness: Non-hierarchical
• Longevity: Variably-lived (depending on the tree, trees may have super- or sub- human lifespans)
• Complexity: Complex

As with cars above, it may be worth taking a moment to think of the ways in which you agree and disagree with each of these designations.

❗️ To recap: dimensions are the space of possible properties along an axis, and properties are the possible values for a dimension.

Application: Ideation By Substitution #

You may use properties and dimensions to generate new ideas by performing an operation called substitution. Subsitution is performed by replacing a single property with an alternate property along the same dimension, while keeping all other properties constant.

For example, subsituting "Natural" with "Man-made" along the "Naturalness" dimension on trees would give you a "Man-made Tree," with the following properties:

📋 Properties of Trees ("Natural" -> "Man-made") #

• Naturalness: Man-made
• Homogeneity: Heterogenous
• Hierarchicalness: Non-hierarchical
• Longevity: Variably-lived
• Complexity: Complex

Something interesting has happened here - this list is now describing something that may or may not exist. In particular, while man-made trees exist (e.g. artificial Christmas trees), they do not typically have the property "variably-lived". Therefore, this suggests a novel concept: "Variably-lived Man-made Trees". Let's imagine what some possibilities for this might look like:

📋 Possibilities For Variably-lived Man-made Trees #

• fake trees that mechanically execute a fake "life cycle"
• fake trees that hide or show themselves depending on the season
• fake trees that are made of material that decomposes over time
• fake trees that contain edible parts that may be eaten over variable lengths of time
• fake trees that require "watering" or "fertilizing" to maintain growth

This last possibility seems interesting - let's develop it into a more fully-formed idea.

💡 Habit Tree #

A habit tree is a digital plant that requires "watering" via habit-tracking in order to stay healthy.

A small screen sitting on your desktop shows a display of a tree in bloom. This means you've stayed on top of your monthly goals so far. If you start missing your goals, the leaves will wither and the tree will die. If you keep up with your goals, and the tree will flourish and bear fruit.

Clearly, a few extra steps were taken from the original substitution operation to reach this idea- however, this should still serve as a demonstration of how substitution might be used in starting a unique train of thought.

Try It Yourself #

I encourage you to try this ideation process by yourself by considering the following questions:

• What are the properties of ants, along the dimensions listed above?
• What do you get if you perform a substitution on any of the properties?