Today in the Open Future Text Lab: figure & ground + peripheral vision Time & how to join: futuretextlab.info

Do you have good intentions of committing to a regular morning writing routine, but find that all too often the time gets frittered away with news, emails and other distractions? If so, this workshop is for you. buff.ly/Xtyw4mq

• Future Text Lab • We are eager to grow the community. This is a non-commercial project & very casual but also very dedicated to the topic. Come check out the site to see previous sessions to judge by yourself. futuretextlab.info Open Lab every Monday 4:30-6pm UK

Is showing a connection a line-routing problem — or a signifier problem? We reframed relationships in 360° space via Norman's affordances, asked what a node shows when closed, and watched one AI brief another to render our own ideas. youtu.be/6rHgL25CnTg

In my latest Substack at augmentingintelligence.substack.com, I argue that AI may have finally given us Vannevar Bush's associative trails. Read the first of four parts here: augmentingintelligence.substack.com/p/never-ask-... @edufuturist.bsky.social @hegland.bsky.social @hrheingold.bsky.social

Figure & ground in XR: if everything is available at once, that's the problem, not the dream. We explored selective access, the cost of choosing, writing as thinking, AI chat logs as visible thought-trails & more. youtu.be/4tgcLEHTNiE

Happy Wednesday.

this is a pride flag made from real nasa imagery happy pride month 🏳️‍🌈✨

"...your research reminds us that meaning is not merely found in texts — it is created through them." Mikhail Seliverstov, a collaborator from long ago sent this to me today, on my birthday. What a great phrasing of what I am trying to do. I just wanted to share it 😊

Figure and ground in XR — authorship as negotiation between what you have and what you make. From clay bulla to Warburg's wall, the real challenge isn't reach but learning to build your own frames. futuretextlab.info/2026/05/27/1...

Today we are looking at figure & ground, document and space for thinking in XR. Feel free to join us, 4:30 UK time, online: futuretextlab.info

For Monday's session on The Future of Text I invite you with a piece of music: youtube.com/shorts/02WRi...

I’ve started a podcast. It’s called ‘thinking music’. It’s my way of getting a different perspective on the work we do with text, tools for thought and XR. If you like this type of thing maybe have a listen :-) www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

We are very happy to announce the 90 outstanding researchers from across the world who have been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society this year, in fields from astronomy and cancer research to mathematics and biotechnology. #RSFellows royalsociety.org/news/2026/05...

Another reminder: if there exists *any* class of people who don't have due process rights, then *nobody* actually has due process rights because the government can always just say you're in that class.

Spatial Sections now scroll to source text in Author for visionOS. The EPUB vs YAML container debate deepened, touching stand-off markup, switchable contextual libraries, and AI's dissolution of format boundaries. futuretextlab.info/2026/05/19/1...

Please feel free to join us 4:30 UK time today as we continue our journey into the possible futures of text. futuretextlab.info/2026-cal/

An update on how a document can be opened up into Nodes for reading in whatever orientation you prefer, while connected to the traditional linear document. This is a big step for the project, I hope you like it. youtu.be/OSUA-rAUnSg

Write in a Thinking Space. Author for macOS. Please try it, please feel free to ask me any questions. www.augmentedtext.info/author

Join us today in our Open Office Hours session. futuretextlab.info/2026-cal/

I really wish people aspiring to write understood what a competitive advantage being able to write without AI will be in the coming years.

The answer to any meaningful question isn't an answer. It's possibilities. Engelbart showed us the vision in the 60s. AI gives us the tools to complete his vision. bit.ly/returnofthec... @edufuturist.bsky.social @hrheingold.bsky.social @hegland.bsky.social #ThirdWAI #Engelbart #AIAugmentation"

Demo sparked discussion on cognitive load, adaptive interfaces & a new format; Origami Text. Vygotsky's zone of proximal development was proposed as a design principle — interfaces should scaffold the next cognitive step, not flatten complexity. futuretextlab.info/2026/04/28/6...

What I would do in every time zone. Post.

Yesterday: AI levels the educational playing field but our document formats haven't kept up. We explored whether ePub or a new format could finally give us ownable, citable, shareable knowledge & why that's a social problem as much as a technical one. futuretextlab.info/2026/04/27/2...

Join us today, 5PM UK time: futuretextlab.info/2026-cal/

"Meditation", Je Shen, Chinese Artist, 2026

Playing around in Author in Vision Pro today. Update on testing, using, learning. Have look if you like. youtu.be/ijqmQn1QMjQ

Virginia Woolf, more than a hundred years ago:

Future Text Lab: Explored the tension between sitting and moving in XR knowledge spaces, peripheral semantic multiplexing, second-hand gestural modifiers, and whether we're in our 1962 or 1968 moment of augmented thought. #XR #SpatialComputing futuretextlab.info/2026/04/20/2...

Feel free to join us later today in our Open Office Hour: futuretextlab.info/2026-cal/

What YouTube suggested I do next. Crazy.

Future Text Lab: Can today's XR interfaces be our generation's punch cards? We explored generative writing, core vs. contextual space, and what Engelbart's 5-year mission would look like now. futuretextlab.info/2026/04/13/1... #XR #KnowledgeWork #GenerativeWriting

Hah!

Absolutely! #BookSky

This looks interesting...

Join us online today, 13th of April. 8:30-10:30 Pacific | 11:30-1:30 Eastern | 4:30-6:30 UK | 5:30-7:30 CEST futuretextlab.info/2026-cal/

Yesterday's session: Spatial nodes should furl, unfurl & not scroll. The HyperCard moment for XR knowledge work is close — but we're still finding the metaphors. #SpatialComputing #XR #KnowledgeWork #FutureLabhttps://futuretextlab.info/2026/03/24/april-6th-2026/

Perspective on what might be useful to practically work in XR. To kick of discussion today at futuretextlab.info/2026-cal/ youtu.be/VmYoNF7Zu3U

Working in XR is not really reading or writing in the traditional sense, it is ‘born digital’ in an entirely new dimension. We look at addressing what this might mean. Feel free to join us. Monday 6th of April futuretextlab.info

ICE and War Funding Can Now Become the Latest Excuse to Gut the Social Safety Net talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ice-and...

Can XR help us think with text, not just read it? The session explored spatial knowledge environments, reading science, and the tension between human novelty-seeking and computational consistency. futuretextlab.info/2026/03/24/3... #TextForThought #XR #SpatialComputing #KnowledgeWork #FutureOfText

57 of my fellow students were arrested, academically disciplined, and barred from campus 2 weeks before finals. And then the visas of some of those students were quietly revoked. And then the DEI office was killed. And then we watched our mentors’ grants evaporate over “woke”.

Future Text Lab: Exploring what knowledge interaction in XR truly is — not reading, not writing, but spatial navigation. From flow states to LLM verbosity and cave paintings to the Vatican, the group reached for a language that doesn't yet exist. futuretextlab.info

Perspective

It’s as easy as shutting your effin mouth! And did I mention… it’s free?!

To understand is to stand among.

We're choosing topics today. Join us: futuretextlab.info