Semilattice

Summary

Semilattice is a collection of speculative system and interaction concepts for personal knowledge management tools. It explores how digital tools for thinking, research, and note-taking might move beyond rigid file hierarchies and static documents toward more fluid, relational, and context-rich environments for thought. Drawing inspiration from Christopher Alexander’s idea that “a natural city has the organization of a semilattice,” the project argues that existing personal knowledge management systems encourage the collection of information rather than the formation of meaningful connections between ideas.

At the core of Semilattice is the idea that knowledge structures should be networked rather than strictly hierarchical. Instead of forcing notes into single locations, cards can have multiple parents and relationships simultaneously, allowing ideas to exist across contexts. Information is built from modular blocks that can be connected, rearranged, referenced, and embedded fluidly. The system combines freeform sketching, structured writing, references, web research, and spatial organization into a unified environment designed to support exploration and iterative thinking rather than static storage.

Semilattice also rethinks the relationship between thinking and browsing. Rather than separating web research from note-taking, the project proposes that the web should become part of the local knowledge environment itself. Webpages can become persistent, retraceable objects inside the knowledge base, complete with snapshots, references, annotations, and contextual links. Combined with modeless interaction, quick capture, and direct manipulation, Semilattice explores a more playful and cognitively lightweight approach to personal knowledge management — one where ideas remain interconnected, revisitable, and alive over time.

We've never dealt with so much information. More than a hundred thousand words pass before our eyes and ears every day, and it has never been more challenging to make them useful.

We've moved information from paper and folders to computers, but we still organize it in the same ways. What if it were a little different? What happens if we organize information in a way that works like how we think?

Key concepts

• Networked knowledge structures Instead of organizing information into rigid trees and folders, Semilattice allows notes and cards to exist across multiple contexts and relationships simultaneously.
• Fluid modular content Knowledge is composed from small modular blocks that can be rearranged, linked, embedded, sketched on, and recombined dynamically.
• The web as local knowledge Webpages become persistent local objects inside the knowledge base, allowing research, annotation, and contextual linking to remain connected over time.
• Fast, modeless input The system emphasizes uninterrupted thought flow through lightweight interactions such as instant block creation, inline linking, freehand drawing, and direct manipulation.
• Thinking through association Semilattice treats knowledge work as a process of building relationships between ideas rather than collecting isolated documents or notes.

Semilattice explores how personal knowledge tools might better reflect the associative, iterative, and contextual nature of human thought. By replacing rigid hierarchies with networked relationships, integrating web research directly into the thinking environment, and emphasizing fluid interaction over formal structure, the project imagines knowledge systems less as digital filing cabinets and more as living spaces for exploration and synthesis.

This idea was originally published as Semilattice.