WO2008076438A1 - Augmenting individual and collective human thinking and knowledge navigation and creation - Google Patents

Abstract

Augmenting individual and collective human thinking and knowledge navigation and creation by providing an Internet based software application, relational database and storage infrastructure, which together comprise a Thought Engine; enabling users to input and store concepts and the semantic relationships between concepts, into the Thought Engine; enabling users to input and store links from concepts in the Thought Engine to related informational content elsewhere on the Internet; enabling users to input and store links from concepts that they have input into the Thought Engine to concepts that other users have input into the Thought Engine; enabling users to output, search and navigate all the concepts and the semantic relationships between concepts on the Thought Engine and links to informational content stored elsewhere on the Internet; and enabling users to use the Thought Engine to create, connect, search and explore a network of concepts and links to relevant informational content on the Internet.

Description

AUGMENTING INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE HUMAN THINKING AND KNOWLEDGE NAVIGATION AND CREATION

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This disclosure relates to the field of systems and apparatuses designed for augmenting individual and collective human thinking and knowledge navigation and creation. More particularly this disclosure pertains to an Internet hosted software application and its unique relational database and storage infrastructure, funded by advertisers and users, that enables human beings to individually and collectively create, store, explore and share thoughts and knowledge in the form of visual Mind Maps of a vast and growing network of semantic concepts that overlay relevant informational content on the Internet.

[0002] The progress of human civilization owes a great deal to the systems that were invented through the ages for the purpose of augmenting individual and collective human thinking and knowledge navigation. Elaborate oral traditions and story telling, artwork, the hand written and then the printed word alongside formal education and library systems were all ways that the individual and the collective population augmented their thinking and knowledge navigation in the age prior to the age of the digitization of information in the computer.

[0003] hi his famous July 1945, article in The Atlantic Monthly, "As we may think",

Vannever Bush described his vision for a system that would augment human thinking and knowledge navigation which he named a "Memex". A Memex would be a system modeled on the way the mind works by association, rather than indexing for filing, to allow a person's mind to move through an associative trail of thought which would be connected to a permanent store of all of their relevant informational content, which could be "consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility."

[0004] Inspired by Bush's article, Douglas Englebart of the Stanford Research

Institute, wrote his seminal work "Augmenting Human Intellect: A conceptual Framework", and in 1968 gave what has become known in Computer Science circles as "The mother of all demos" where he provided a visionary demonstration of how the intellectual worker could use a computer system to augment their intellect and increase their productivity.

[0005] Dr. Alan Kay, a founding principle of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, was in turn greatly inspired by Douglas Englebart' s vision and proceeded to pioneer systems in human computer interaction and user interfaces that became the basis for the graphical user interfaces of the Apple Macintosh Operating System and then Microsoft Windows. These visual human computer interaction metaphors dramatically moved forward the state of the art in enabling human beings without extensive backgrounds in computer science to use computers easily and therefore to a certain extent augment their intellect. The digitization of information via computer networks such as the Internet has enabled the efficient processing, storage and transmission of information, knowledge and thoughts by and between human beings.

[0006] Internet Search Engines like Google have enabled human beings to search the

Internet for information related to virtually any question on their mind that they can express in the form of a key word query. Online collaborative knowledge platforms like Wikipedia have enabled human beings distributed across the planet to contribute to and explore a Global repository of knowledge that is constantly being updated. Web Logs or Blogs provided a platform for individual human beings to express and share their thoughts and knowledge with others. Social Book Marking Services like Del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook have provided a system for human beings to tag multimedia content on the Internet with loose taxonomic meta-data that can be shared with and searched by other people. More recently, latent semantic indexing (LSI) sites like Topicalizer have achieved the ability to automatically scan textual information on the web and elsewhere and extract readability, content, meaningful keywords, their proximity to each other and basic organization.

[0007] However, despite these developments, all of these systems involving various aspects of individual and collective human thinking and knowledge navigation would be useless without the one biological organ that human beings have always depended on, their brain. What if we could rely on an outside expert system to do some of our thinking for us? It may be true that information technology has augmented the natural abilities of the human brain to store and retrieve information from memory and indeed to make fast calculations. Indeed, Computer Scientists and pioneers in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have moved forward the state of the art in trying to emulate the human brain with different types of expert systems, genetic algorithms and neural networks. However none of the aforementioned systems approaches replicating the amazing natural ability of the brain to make connections and associations between concepts, knowledge and information, and to therefore perceive new ideas and generate new knowledge. Google may help a human being (user) find the answer to a query but the human being must rely on their own brain or the brain of another human being to form the thought that leads to the question in the first place. The user must also then sort through the results for the relevant answer among many that might have nothing to do with their interest. [0008] While progress has been made towards the goals of augmenting human thought and knowledge navigation, innovations needed to realize the aforementioned vision by Annever Bush of a "Memex" type system have not been made. The typical Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the personal computer is still based on a hierarchical filing metaphor like that used by a library or an office filing cabinet and even the most powerful search engines are based on the metaphor of key word indexing, hi other words, despite various improvements in the technology available tools are based on essentially linear, hierarchical categorical systems rather than the naturally non-linear, parallel, "associative" system of the human mind. The essential architecture of computers remains linear — a linear series of commands going sequentially through a sequence of nodes (memory, CPU, output) using a sequence of ones and zeroes.

[0009] One of the best available interface (and visualization) tools is called the Mind

Map. The Mind Map was developed by Tony Buzan in the 1960s and has become one of the preeminent tools used by people to express thought in a radiant non-linear manner. A Mind Map has a central concept which then branches off into a second layer of concepts which are themselves central concepts for branches that radiate out to third layer concepts and so on. Mind Maps encourage radiant thinking as opposed to linear thinking that is more common in a traditional list structure. For the first thirty years the technique was limited to non-digital media such as pen and paper — helping people to augment and extend their brain's natural ability to associate concepts.

[0010] However by the 1990s and early 2000s several companies had produced successful Mind Mapping software for helping people organize their thoughts and information using personal digital media such as computers, personal digital assistants and so forth. Such software applications include commercial software packages like Mind Manager, Visual Mind, Personal Brain and open source software such as Freemind. Patents in this field include U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,937 to Ford et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,944 to Hugh, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0011] Many of these software applications even enable people to share their thoughts and knowledge in the form of Mind Maps that they have authored with others via email and company intranet and so forth (see also mind-mapping.org). However the sharing of Mind Maps in this fashion is piecemeal, unsystematic and not scalable. Furthermore, it is not possible for a user of any of these applications (who for example might be interested in exploring a certain conceptual area or knowledge domain) to simply search and navigate the output of related informational content in Mind Map form by all other users of the application. [0012] There have also been various developments that used the metaphor of visual concept maps as an intuitively appealing interface to overlay the nodes in a database to help users to navigate a conceptual space and domain of knowledge that are already populated by the designers of the database. Patents in this field include U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,937 to Ford et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,604 to Lane, both of which are incorporated herein by reference. An example of the ability to navigate a domain of concepts visually is the Think Map Visual Thesaurus developed by Plumb Design.

[0013] These developments while certainly important are essentially a one way channel of concepts and knowledge from the "experts" and publishers who design and populate these databases to users whose only role is that of passive consumers and navigators of conceptual space and domains of knowledge. They do not allow for the often unexpected and priceless contribution of individual insights about a particular field. In other words, previous Mind Map databases were not designed for the input and sharing of concepts and knowledge by the users themselves.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] For a more complete understanding of the present invention, the drawings herein illustrate examples of the invention. The drawings, however, do not limit the scope of the invention. Similar references in the drawings indicate similar elements.

Figure 1 is an exemplary Mind Map format with radiant links around one central concept.

Figure 2 is an exemplary advanced alternative visualization combining standard Mind Map structure with loopbacks and Global or Mindex (the mind's index) data.

Figure 3 is exemplary basic coding structure of the underlying programming, according to one embodiment.

Figure 4 is an illustration of the claims in Mind Map format.

Figure 5 is an illustration of concepts that are integrated into a Thought Engine, in a preferred embodiment.

Figure 6 is an illustration of concepts for an exemplary Thought Guide.

Figure 7 is an illustration of an exemplary Thought Engine.

Figure 8 is an exemplary system and network for a Thought Engine.

Figure 9 is an illustration of utilities and concepts encompassed by an exemplary Thought Engine, according to a preferred embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0015] In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the preferred embodiments. However, those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details, that the present invention is not limited to the depicted embodiments, and that the present invention may be practiced in a variety of alternate embodiments. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components, and systems have not been described in detail.

[0016] Various operations may be described as multiple discrete steps performed in turn in a manner that is helpful for understanding the preferred embodiments. However, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily performed in the order they are presented, nor even order dependent. Lastly, repeated usage of the phrase "in one embodiment" does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, although it may.

[0017] The present inventors conceived an online tool or system to help people express and record their thoughts and related information in Mind Map form and to explore and share the thoughts of other people using the system. The inventors contemplated that, in a preferred embodiment, three key features of the system utilize a virtual structure for:

1) building rich and detailed but unconstrained semantic relationships among things,

2) overlaying and quantifying group semantic maps, and

3) leveraging individual user contributions to form a Global dataset, that dataset representing the current summed semantic thought tree of human experience.

[0018] Preferably, the system is referred to as a Thought Engine, and may be considered a conceptual linkage system for exploring associative and subjective relationships among ideas. It may be viewed as a multidimensional ontology space generated by individuals and pooled to create a network of meaningful relationships and possibilities. In one sense, the system may be considered a shared human mind. Building a "collective intelligence" is one goal the inventors have for the Thought Engine. One embodiment was implemented and installed on the world wide web (Internet) and may be found at http://www.miindi.com.

[0019] The inventors determined that the fundamental value of such a Thought Engine may be the web-based (therefore scalable) and dynamic (therefore responsive) coding of linked concepts from human thought. The inventors discovered any two chosen things can be related or linked to each other in many different ways, and it is the resolution and differentiation of these types of linkage, and their accessible combination, that form the basis for a powerful new type of search, index, and discovery capability in a mature Thought Engine.

Useful Nomenclature:

Thought/concept — In one embodiment, a flexible text tag of one to three descriptive words.

Element/node — The thing (thought or concept) to be linked, a physically unique place in virtual space.

Child — An element connected to a central element in consideration. Sibling — An element with the same relationship to the central element.

Link/branch/synapse — The fundamental value (figuratively and quantitatively) of the Thought Engine; the relationship between things.

Trace/path — A linear linkage of things.

Circuit/circle — Any closed trace or loopback.

Mind Map — A focused, conceptual wandering using radiant branching of linked terms.

Mind Journey — A broader general goal of inquiry consisting of one or more Mind Maps.

Mind Space — An individual's entire collection of material in the Thought Engine.

Think Tank — A group of users involved in one or more team Mind Journeys.

Mindex (the mind's index) or Global database — The overlayed or collapsed network of thought nodes and links.

[0020] The present inventors determined that in order for computers and the Internet to be able to help human beings to discover new questions, new conceptual connections and new possibilities, what is needed is not only a Search Engine but a Thought Engine and that in order to make this possible, what is needed is not just more artificial intelligence but also massively augmented, amplified and extended human intelligence. The inventors determined that what is required is a system for human beings to be able to interface with the Internet and each other in a way that is a visible extension and representation of the natural associative architecture of the human brain. The inventors envisioned a Thought Engine which has at its root the sum current total of human conceptual knowledge; base information that can be used to query and interface with all other information in order to extract meaning. Such a Thought Engine is critical for further progress in knowledge management, hi a preferred embodiment, the Thought Engine comprises a human semantic thought tree or codebook (or "Mindex"). The human genome may be decoded, but the human mind at a higher conceptual level is not. The Mindex comprises more than a simple index of information or a dictionary or thesaurus describing terms or synonyms. The Mindex is more than this because it adds information from the crucial subjective insight of individual minds about how things really link or associate together — links beyond the standard or formal definitions; links that include experiential and subtle knowledge. The Thought Engine described herein builds these links via the help of the millions of people that will use it. The Thought Engine preferably comprises the general concept of building the Mindex using Mind Map information provided by multiple users. The inventors envision that the Thought Engine will begin to physically instantiate the Mindex by generating it in one place independent of mind, which will generate the mother of all Mind Maps, and be capable of indexing the whole and any part of human output.

Seventy versus several billion years

[0021] Computing machines have developed for practical use over approximately seventy years and improved logarithmically (e.g. Moore's law) in speed, memory, and design. However, their basic architecture supports a linear manipulation of information that leads to description, categorization, and quantification, but not necessarily creation. In contrast, the human mind has evolved over billions of years to serve survival functions that include most fundamentally prediction (what will happen, what could happen) and problem-solving. The mind's vastly parallel architecture continually blends sense data with memory and internal goals to keep the individual on top of their environment and situation. A mature Thought Engine as described herein may help to teach simple machines the sense data and novel associations and solutions that our wetware (brain) creates by capturing or encoding the sum of human thought into a format which present day machines can digest.

Relationship to brain/mind

[0022] Neurons in the human brain have aspects of analog and digital behavior. The action potential is an all-or-none integration at the axon hillock which then results in a powerful one-way transmission of reinforced ionic activity toward the target neuron or cell (-digital, i.e. 1 or 0). But dendritic input to that neuron is a highly tuned synopsis from many synapses (-analog, in the sense of a graded response) where the strength or efficiency of each synapse is dependent on the relationship of that neuron's firing to the firing of other neurons to which it is synaptically connected; "The neurons that fire together, wire together" in the parlance of neuroscience. Resonant (sharing frequency) and repeated activity at a particular synapse increases the effectiveness of that synapse for transmitting information between cells/neurons. In other words, "if you're going to be using this connection a lot, we might as well make it more efficient and bigger." So the Thought Engine may comprise, like the brain/mind, a chimera which combines digital and analog processes to codify thoughts generated from individual users. In accordance with one embodiment, it does this by encoding static structural links between thoughts and concepts, and also by utilizing dynamic activity on the resulting network to further coordinate and motivate the system.

[0023] Memories are generally known to be resonant networks of synaptically connected neurons. Leading theories of what consciousness is point to cortex-crossing networks of multimodal neurons all firing in synchrony to an underlying frequency or rhythm. An appropriately rich digital analog (such as a Thought Engine) may be able to replicate memories by defining specific traces of connectivity. This would be like exciting a circuit; a richly- defined virtual network or Thought Engine preferably has the capability of adding or observing virtual energy to any one link and detecting the resulting resonance of the circuits it forms. Quantitatively, link strength among the elements cascade and in many cases feed back to neighboring linkages to generate a network memory or percept. The attributes of that circuit may be reported in multiple ways and formats (e.g. a tag cloud, a call to visual images of included objects, or auditory words or sounds) to evoke the memory. By shaking one branch (linkage) of the network tree, the platform described herein preferably highlights and displays the resulting associative network, and draws other users to the site of recent or robust activity. This exercise would uncover elements unexpected by any one observer to explore further.

[0024] hi one embodiment, a dynamic temporal network provides the Thought Engine with the ability to stay "on the pulse" of real-time use. The inventors determined that such a network may be achieved by making the data in the relational database itself represent or respond in the time domain. This creates a focus of activity that may be layered on top of the existing nodal architecture (static data). The inventors determined that data nodes (thoughts) most active and populated but also most structurally sound (link structure and depth) will best maintain (resonate) dynamic activity. A standing query to report current activity around a given concept or thought, for example, would not be predictable but rather reflect the most recent activity and allow the system to 'ignore' or 'forget' other data. This ability to shift the output of a query dynamically and push this information to a user results in an interface which behaves closely like a sentient being. In essence it provides a computer system with the flexibility to attend to the most salient input and shift its response appropriately—or so it would seem to a human interlocutor, hi other words, a dynamic temporal network might allow unmanaged machine attention. [0025] Like neurons in a brain, individual humans are connectors which build society.

The Thought Engine aims to codify and make useful this individual knowledge. There are many types of knowledge that can be expected from any one individual, and providing incentives to create specific content might be necessary. This may be accomplished by recruiting members of a classroom, group, or company to help define and build a project, and it may be done by relying on a person's individual need to explore their own thoughts and to share their knowledge with the world. Individuals might contribute to an existing framework, or start a new journey of thought from scratch. A Thought Engine user confronted with a blank space around one lonely thought or concept will sometimes find it difficult to get started adding links to that thought. But the starkness of the format also encourages an individual to link up things in creative ways that make unique sense to them, and would only make sense to a biological mind. We are called to predict action, prepare for the future, remember events, and associate thought with feeling and sometimes driving passion; thought is a persuasion of subjective reality. The inventors believe the Thought Engine described herein is not merely some algorithmic calculation based on known or existing quantities — text strings, synonyms, antonyms and the like (like Google's Adsense)— but is in fact a representation of human meaning, is human centric, and therefore independent of any calculated quantity, except for the calculation that takes place in the human mind. When overlaid and multiplied, this becomes quite powerful. Preferably, the Thought Engine's core strength lies not in the elements themselves, but the functional linkages between them. It is more than a word web, but a meaning web, because it gets to the core of human reason and emotion, and that is what makes it novel and special and an invaluable resource for progress.

[0026] The inventors intend that the Thought Engine will effectively enable human minds to extend outward onto the Internet and represent themselves visibly in the form of a massive and highly intuitive architecture of associated conceptual connections that overlay links to relevant content and information. As with the leading Search Engines the Thought Engine is preferably scalable to meet the needs of the whole of humanity.

[0027] The inventors observed that the Internet has begun to democratize access to knowledge and information, and the role of "experts" and "publishers" as the media gatekeepers of a one-way supply of information to consumers has given way to a new era where people may easily publish their own thoughts and knowledge as "user generated content" and share it with everyone else on the Internet on personal blogs, social networking web sites and collaborative platforms like Wikipedia. [0028] The inventors speculate that a company or organization could create an enormous database of all known concepts and knowledge and enable users of this database to navigate and explore this database all tied to relevant informational content on the Internet using a Mind Map interface. However, the editorial resources required for such a project would be substantial and the resulting product would be no more than a digital version of a non-living encyclopedia with a visually appealing and intuitive user interface.

[0029] The inventors believe without the key insight of allowing autonomous interconnected users to input their own thoughts and navigate the thoughts of others across the world, such a service certainly would not be a living representation (or Mindex) of the real thoughts and conceptual connections in the minds of individual human beings using the system. Indeed, by departing from the prior "top down" art and instead building a system that enables users to input and store their own thoughts, and to output, search, navigate and explore the thoughts of other users (in network and Mind Map form as a preferred architectural premise), the possibility for a truly dynamic representation of the Global human mind flowers. The Thought Engine would be a layer of conceptual connections of thought on top of all of the informational content on the Internet, built by individual minds using the system with very little if any editorial input from the architects of the system.

[0030] Furthermore, none of the prior "Mind Mapping" systems would help to advance the vision of a "Semantic Web" held by Tim Berners-Lee and others. Their ideas in which the World Wide Web will include layers of meaning in data and services that becomes understandable to intelligent agents and other forms of artificial intelligence and other types of "semantic web" software applications on the Internet will require a semantic coding system and database (such as in a Mindex). The inventors assert that the Thought Engine instantiates such code, and such a system could then use this information for the purpose of augmenting the speed and efficiency of individual and collective human thinking and knowledge navigation and creation.

[0031] Preferably, the Thought Engine allows users, while building their Mind

Journeys, to assign one or more of several possible types of relationship between two objects or concepts, and in specific direction. The Thought Engine not only links uniquely human associations, but describes how they are linked. For example, one thing can be smaller than another, and this codes an inherent polarity to the relationship (e.g. Moon, Earth). But other less formal arrangements are also possible. A user of the Thought Engine can assign emotional attributes to certain concepts which have little to do with any strictly logical association (e.g. Moon, wild). These kind of data therefore embody a rich resolution of context heretofore not possible in a codified system, and which other software can than manipulate and learn from.

[0032] In addition, none of the previous "Mind Mapping" applications would take advantage of the social networking capability of the Internet to not only use the system to connect concepts but also to connect people. Human beings are social beings and intellectual activity is no exception. None of the previous Mind Mapping applications would enable users to discover like-minded people outside of their usual workspace and form communities of practice around shared conceptual interests.

[0033] Finally, none of the previous systems of "Mind Mapping" applications fund their operations by providing a paid advertising service that enables companies and organizations to create "Brand Maps" that would help them to create conceptual connections between their brands, products and services and the minds of users.

[0034] In the inventors' view, all the previous systems that have been described for augmenting individual and collective human thinking and knowledge navigation, while perhaps useful to some degree, leave significant areas for improvement. What is required is a new system, a Thought Engine, commercially funded by a new form of paid brand advertising and/or inter-user commerce, that combines the shared thoughts of real human minds via a Mind Map interface, encoded in machine readable semantic web compliant data models and formats, with the power and scale of the Internet.

[0035] The inventors believe that such a Thought Engine creates the potential for billions of human beings to create, share and explore conceptual and subjective connections and links to informational content that would be stored in a dynamic system that would be built in the image of the human mind itself (i.e. the Mindex).

Types of User Interaction with the Thought Engine

[0036] The Thought Engine is preferably a software application, dynamic relational database and storage infrastructure hosted on servers on the Internet designed to be accessible by personal computers, mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, televisions and any other "client" device that is connected to the Internet and is suitable for the input and output of data by the user. [0037] The user can interact with the Thought Engine, either by using a mouse, a keyboard, digital pen, their own voice, or other suitable input device (perhaps eventually to include thought or neural action itself).

[0038] There are preferably two purposes for the user to interact with the Thought

Engine. The first purpose is to input thoughts and related information into the Thought Engine (to "think") for description, brainstorming, problem solving and memory augmentation, and the second purpose is to discover and explore the output of thoughts, and links to informational content on the Internet, that other people have input into the Thought Engine in order to learn new things.

[0039] To achieve these two purposes there are preferably four main ways that the user can access the Thought Engine: 1) following a specific URL address using an Internet Browser and visiting the home page of the Thought Engine, 2) through any informational content on the Internet that has already been linked to the Thought Engine by users of the Thought Engine (e.g. an embedded link or a Thought Engine search box that has been embedded into the third party informational content), 3) a "Plug-In" search box or button that must be downloaded from the Thought Engine and embedded into the users Internet browser in order to use this function, and 4) by downloading and installing the Thought Engine software application on the "desk top" of a personal computer or mobile device. In this way users can be permanently connected to the Thought Engine whenever their personal computer or mobile device is connected to the Internet.

The Thought Engine Interface

[0040] The primary interface for the Thought Engine is preferably the Mind Map. As described earlier, Tony Buzan's Mind Map is a way to express thought in a radiant non-linear manner. A Mind Map has a central concept which then branches into a second layer of concepts which are themselves central concepts for branches that radiate out to third layer concepts and so on. A collection of thoughts that a user creates in Mind Map form is described by the Thought Engine as a Mind Journey. A user creates a new thought Journey using the Mind Map interface by first specifying a central concept and then sequentially adding "child" concepts to the second layer. The second layer elements can also branch to a third layer, and this tree or root structure can be continued at will (Figure 1). From this simple structure the network can be built in any direction.

[0041] Figure 1 shows a simple Mind Map around the concept "roadway". For example, a user might be thinking broadly about the subject of Roadways with the intention of exploring different types of structures that could be designed to enable traffic of people or goods to pass from point A to point B via some type of geographical obstacle. The user would create a Mind Journey with a Mind Map that has the first central concept of "Roadway" which then becomes the title of this Mind Journey. Let us imagine that the user has chosen to create branches from the "Roadways" central concept to branch concepts like "Road", "Bridge" and "Tunnel" which are of course three different ways of solving the problem of connecting two places that are separated by a geographical obstacle like a river or a mountain. The user can then make this Mind Journey more valuable conceptually by adding additional thoughts that branch off from each of the second tier branch concepts. Let us say the user wants to "flesh out" his thoughts around the subject of Bridge. In this example the user describes new branch concepts with the words "skybridge", "pontoon", "foot bridge", "suspension bridge" and "rope bridge" to describe different types of bridges. Or, imagine the user is thinking more philosophically and alternatively adds six other thoughts associated with bridge, such as "link", "connection", "joining", "apposition", "throughput", and "flow". Another user might begin adding terms related to the card game Bridge. The point is that the Thought Engine is unconstrained and accepts any thought and any number of thoughts that the user has in their mind which links to "Bridge".

[0042] Adding thoughts or concepts involves inputting a text string using the keyboard or other input device. In one embodiment of the Thought Engine, the thoughts or concepts to be added to the system are limited to a one to three word textual format. For combinatorial complexity and processing reasons, this might be the preferred embodiment. There are currently approximately one million words in the English language. While the number of possible combinations of three word phrases would be nearly infinite (~10¹⁷, even ignoring pronouns, abbreviations, etc), nevertheless the number of most commonly used thoughts in everyday human activity is likely limited to core associations among several hundred thousand concepts. The textual input from users will create a core population that will be processed by the Thought Engine.

[0043] A further consequence of limiting the input string is that a length-constrained thought string structure leads to 'high level' hierarchical or framework thinking that is essentially different than everyday language or writing but useful for concept mapping. It might become a more efficient form of communication due to its density, and will encourage new literary forms like radiant poetry. In an alternative embodiment, a truly unrestrained thought definition would allow more possibility and avoid truncation variables, but require more processing. Mature versions of the Thought Engine are preferably able to translate these concepts between different languages using existing software.

[0044] Selecting a second layer thought from a Mind Map results in the "view" of the

Mind Map shifting automatically to radiate from the new selected thought. It becomes the central concept of the shifted Mind Map and can be added to continuously. The user can "zoom" in and out from the growing Mind Journey with a view that shows more or less hierarchical layers of relationships, and navigate to any node or concept from that view.

[0045] However, the complexity of a network that includes unconstrained thoughts and linkages will likely require a visualization richer than the standard Mind Map to fully appreciate the data. For one thing, a radiant structure cannot show closed loops. Certain circular and parallel concepts will eventually connect back to other thoughts (loopbacks or closed traces) and a richly defined Map quickly becomes a multidimensional network. It would also be useful if the Thought Engine could provide the user with hints or data from other users or the Global dataset about possible thoughts to add, and this could be achieved by showing the Global data as another layer or background.

[0046] Figure 2 shows one embodiment of a richer visualization able to show the current Mind Map (i.e. the current Mind Journey) and also the Global database (i.e. the Mindex) and loopbacks in the current data (double-ended arrow) not amenable to the Mind Map radiant format. In this example, the user has mapped the famous prayer by Niebuhr, and the double- ended arrow highlights that "wisdom" is not only connected to "can change" but also to "cannot change" — i.e. to the difference between them. While not shown in this figure, color will be an important variable in advanced visualizations. Also shown in the background Global data are the categorical options for defining link types between concepts (Why, What, Where, etc) described below.

[0047] In one embodiment, the Thought Engine displays the data by treating thoughts

(nodes) and branches (links) as physical quanta and employing spatial and repulsion models to self-organize the view optimally. The user can also select from coded link attributes to highlight a particular pattern of links within the network. For example, the user could select for novelty and the most recent links created would be highlighted. In one embodiment the user can "fly through" the network using a visualization interface that models three-dimensional movement through the spatial nodes of the network.

[0048] An individual's Mind Journey can be as short as one link or alternatively hundreds or thousands of overlapping Mind Maps representing many hours, days, weeks, months or even years of sustained thought and research. Preferably, the Thought Engine will , automatically create a title for the Mind Journey which is set default to the central concept of the first Mind Map in the Mind Journey unless the user changes that title. Every Mind Map preferably comprises the title of the Mind Journey that it is a part of, and also the name of the user that created it. In one embodiment, a user may navigate backwards or forwards (up or down branches) through a Mind Journey, display all of the existing Journey concepts in a list, or search for a particular concept in a search box in order to reorient the Map view to that thought.

User Input of Semantic Relationships between Concepts into the Thought Engine; Ontology and Semantics

[0049] There are many ways that two things can relate to each other, and that relationship often has a polarity. A link can also take on several qualities at once. These different types of links can also be assigned a ranking value to assist with the calculation of values in the Thought Engine. For example, the link between antonyms might take on a negative number. However, these distinctions might be unnecessary for the basic functioning of a mature Thought Engine. In the brain, a synapse is either excitatory or inhibitory, and to different degrees. There is only one type of "currency" or input a brain can integrate: local electric potentials (voltage). Similarly, a basic currency, related to dynamic resonance activity, can be applied to links in the Though Engine.

[0050] The Thought Engine is preferably designed to help people to think about a conceptual area. A time tested way of helping people to think about a conceptual area is to ask questions. In one embodiment, the Thought Engine guides the user to direct their thoughts about any conceptual area by offering new branch types tied to the following distinct questions:

1) Why? Purpose relationships to this concept, i.e. bridge, navigate, people, cargo, obstacle

2) What? Descriptive relationships to this concept, i.e. bridge, structure, span, obstacle

3) How? Physical functional relationships to this concept, i.e bridge, tension, compression, bending, shear, weight

4) Who? Human relationships to this concept, i.e. bridge, civil engineers, Gustave Eiffel

5) When? Time based relationships to this concept, i.e. bridge, Roman Aqueduct, Inca Rope,

6) Where? Location based relationships to this concept, i.e. bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, London Bridge, Akashi-Kaikyo,

7) Why Not? Alternative based relationship to this concept, i.e. bridge, tunnel, boat, plane [0051] In order to input the type of relationship between the central concept or thought and any second layer concept the Thought Engine asks the user to select one of the clarifying question types or categories shown above which will define the branch or link they are about to input (e.g. Figure 2). There are of course many additional possible subcategories of semantic relationship between concepts, hi one embodiment the user could also choose from the following more advanced options:

Other possible linkage types: (note possible polarity)

Acts On/ Acted Upon: one concept acts on another, i.e. ligand, receptor e.g. Influences/Ignores

Excites/Inhibits

Adds to/Subtracts from

Multiplies/Divides

Used For/Uses

Changes To/Changes From

A Cause Of/ An Effect Of

A Creator/A Creation

An Alternative To

A Problem/A Solution Describes/Is Described: one concept describes another, i.e. blue eyes e.g. Evocative: one concept evokes a sense of, or similarity with, another; synonyms, i.e. ocean, universe

Type Of/Typed By

Includes/Belongs To/Derivative: one concept is a subset, embodies or belongs to another, i.e. neutron, atom e.g. Owns/Owned By

Born of/Begat

Same Group/Same As/Identity

Similar To/Opposite To: one concept antithesizes another; antonyms, or polarity pairs, i.e. black, white

Quantitative/Spatial: one concept is some distance from another, i.e. earth, moon e.g. The Price

Larger Than/Smaller Than/Size

Location Of/Located In Temporal/Order: one concept precedes or follows another, i.e. prime numbers 1, 3, 5

[0052] In one embodiment, and as shown in Figure 6, a Thought Guide or Coach shows six circles around the central term which define the six primary question categories— why, what, and how representing related ideas about the central term or thought, and who, where and when reflecting physical instantiations of the central term. When a user wishes to connect a new thought "Y" to the central term "X", they choose one of the question circles around X which then generates a pop-up list of many possible question types including specific polarity or direction of the relationship. Each question category generates a different list of sub-categories which better define the link created. Examples of the sub-categories are shown in the list above. The user selects the most appropriate definition and also defines "Y" if still needed. When one of the six question types has been selected/defined, its circle becomes filled-in or highlighted or differentiated in some way to show the user that this has been completed. As shown in Figure 6, when one of the six question types has been selected/defined, a dot is added within its circle. In this way a visual reminder will indicate how fully any central term or thought has been defined. If at least one link type definition has been selected for each of the six question categories, all of the circles around the central term will be colored or highlighted. Once a link between two thoughts is created, the user can return anytime to add further definition to the link. Subject- verb-object classification can also be available as a selection during link definition to assist in integrating the data with other semantic web applications like Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Web Ontology Language (OWL).

[0053] It is important to note that this classification data is not just for the purpose of informing other users about the type of relationships between concepts but also to help artificial intelligence, intelligent agents and other types of "semantic web" software applications on the Internet to form an understanding of how concepts relate to one another. This level of semantic definition does not exist in any systemized format to date and will add significant information to the resulting networks. In addition, the refined categories will help the Thought Engine itself to rank the relative value of conceptual relationships input by different users.

User Input of Links from Thoughts to Informational Content on the Internet

[0054] A user may add links from a Mind Map to information and content on the

Internet. The Thought Engine will ask the user to which Mind Map or Journey the link should be displayed. Any number of links can be added. For example, the user will link his specific Mind Map on Bridge to content of interest on the Internet which the user considers to provide information that provides greater depth to his understanding of the concept of Bridge.

[0055] This is essentially a book marking function and one way to collect related information together about a topic in one place. The user decides to place a link to a relevant piece of content from the Internet or otherwise. In one embodiment, they do this by typing or pasting the URL of the informational content into a text string box. Any type of content can be linked, including websites, image, audio/video, RSS Feed/Blog, documents, a published book, or the URL of another Mind Map on the Thought Engine itself.

[0056] To speed the linking of Internet sources to existing Mind Maps, in one embodiment a Thought Engine browser plug-in (Imindi This! book marking widget or standalone software tool) will allow quick linkage without having to actually visit the Thought Engine directly and typing in the appropriate URL address. For the purposes of illustration let us suppose that the aforementioned user who created the Mind Journey on "Roadways" and the Mind Map on "Bridges" finds an interesting website about suspension bridges while he is browsing the web. He may want to add this link to the list of links attached to his Mind Map on Bridges and by calling the Thought Engine browser plug-in he will be connected to the Thought Engine which will automatically fill out the URL field and ask the author to specify which Mind Journey and which Mind Map he wishes to link to this URL. Once this is done the website is attached to the relevant Mind Map and the user can go back to studying that informational content and browsing the Internet.

User Input of links from their own Authored Content to their own Thoughts on the Thought Engine

[0057] It is expected that the early users of the Thought Engine will be Web Log

(Blog) authors and their readers. In many ways the Thought Engine and Blogs are complementary technologies. Blogs enable a person to write their thoughts in a linear and time based fashion, presented as blog postings. The more that you read a blog the more you come to perceive the thought processes of the author that overlay the content of his or her blog posts. Indeed in the process of writing his or her blog the author can gain stunning insights about a subject matter and effectively start a Mind Journey that is picked up in text form in a subsequent blog posting. In this way, the conceptual frameworks and the Mind Journeys that overlay the text of a single or many blog postings are implicit but they are not explicit.

[0058] The Thought Engine makes it explicit and gives the blogger the ability to embark on a Mind Journey at the conceptual level and to explore themes and concepts that could overlay many current and future blog postings. Now the ability to enable the blog author to embed relevant Mind Maps from these Mind Journeys into an actual blog posting finally makes the connection between the specific information in the blog posting and the thoughts of the author. This has value for both the author and the reader of the blog. [0059] The connection would work both ways. A blogger would firstly connect their blog or website to the Thought Engine with an embedded link into the blog template or website. Then when they want to tell the Thought Engine to add a Map to a specific posting they inform the Thought Engine of the specific posting URL and specify which of their Mind Maps to embed with links to the posting itself. In this way, a reader of the blog will be able to click on the Thought Engine links in the blog posting and be taken to the author's chosen Mind Maps on the Thought Engine which they can then use as a point of departure to explore the Mind Journeys of the blog author and the Mind Journeys of other users on the system.

[0060] So for example, let us suppose that the creator of the Mind Journey on

"Roadways" also has authored a blog post on "Bridges." He would then embed the link to his Mind Map on "Bridges" into the blog posting and invite his readers into a deeper understanding of the concepts in his mind.

[0061] It is important to note that while important at the time of writing this application, blogs are not the only form of user-authored content. In one embodiment the Thought Engine will have an essay/text editor itself in which the user can write and then automatically markup (embed links) with chosen nodes or concepts from selected Mind Maps. This material can be copied to other platforms with the links intact. Users will also be able to simply embed a dynamic link to Mind Maps they have authored on the Thought Engine from any other Internet source, including but not limited to HTML text documents, Images, Videos and all types of informational content as long as that content has a URL that can be input into the Thought Engine.

[0062] In one embodiment, the Thought Engine text editor (Write) will automatically hyperlink (mark-up) any text entered into its dataset relevant to specified Mind Journeys, which can then be reciprocally linked to other blogs and formats (in text or Mind Map i.e. linkable image modes). This will greatly speed editing, presentation, and communication and its efficiency between individuals wishing to share ideas and concepts. Essays added as a resource in the Thought Engine are a way of adding more detail or expanding on the basic thought structure of existing Mind Journeys.

User Storage of Thoughts and Links to Informational Content on the Thought Engine

[0063] All inputs to the Thought Engine are preferably automatically saved. However, in a preferred embodiment, the user can only save a Mind Journey into the Thought Engine if they have registered as a user and have a user ID. The Thought Engine will prompt them to register if necessary.

[0064] A Mind Journey is saved into a Mind Space which is a personal space where the user stores Mind Journeys that they have created on the Thought Engine. The Mind Space is also a virtual place where the user can organize their Mind Journeys into various categories, and store the Mind Journeys and Mind Maps authored by other Thought Engine users. The Mind Space is built around the same Mind Map interface described above, and like the Mind Journey whose purpose is to aggregate Mind Maps, a Mind Space has as its purpose the aggregation of Mind Journeys. When a user creates their own Mind Space they can either choose to save all their Mind Journeys into that one Mind Space or more likely they can choose to create several Mind Space categories that branch off the first Mind Map in their Mind Space each with a central concept that is chosen to appropriately aggregate related Mind Journeys.

[0065] It is important to note that once a Mind Journey has been created, the user can revisit it at any time and add links to information and/or new branches that have yet to be explored on that Mind Map. In this way, a user can pursue a Mind Journey in a thorough manner over hours, days, months or even years without ever having to worry about losing their "train of thought." hi this sense the Thought Engine is also a flexible, augmented and reliable physical memory. Building a Mind Journey automatically creates digital memories by preserving thoughts that are sometimes fleeting, and allowing the user to revisit a thought arbor at will to re-instantiate and continue a thought process from an earlier time.

Organizations of Groups for the Purpose of Teaching or Project Development (Think Tanks)

[0066] hi one embodiment, a user group can be defined that allows those users to communally build one or more Mind Journeys within the confines of the group. Incentive to contribute thoughts will take the form of assignments between a Teacher and his students, or an Employer and her workers. The Think Tank tool preferably includes batch invitations of users, intragroup commentary and dialogue, useage summaries, and grading functions. Think Tanks will also become a useful research and footnote tool, where for example, an investigator can map and expand all the relevant hypotheses of a research query, and attach the relevant resources (manuscripts and grants). The combination of Thought Engine tools preferably provides a powerful, flexible and accessible electronic whiteboard for students and authors to build, expand, and record their scholarship. The user is preferably able to protect the privacy of this information, or invite a select group of Like Minds (discussed below); however, it is preferred that the linkage relationship in their Mind Journeys to be shared with the Global database eventually. In one embodiment, user demographic data are applied to the Like Minds in a Think Tank so they can be classified into types like engineer, teacher, or student. These classifications also help with the authority component of link strength algorithms (discussed further below).

Output and Navigation of User Thoughts and associated Informational Content on the Thought Engine

[0067] The power inherent in the Thought Engine for the individual user is not just the ability to create a Mind Journey or Mind Map and link these Mind Maps to content on the web and record this work in their own Mind Space, but also to be able to share their thoughts and links to informational content with all other Thought Engine users.

[0068] By implication, of course, this means that the individual user can benefit from being able to discover and explore the Mind Journeys of other users. The reason that this is important for the individual user is that by having access to the Mind Journey of others with a similar conceptual focus area, they not only can save valuable thinking and research resources in not having to tread the paths that others have tread in their Mind Journeys, but they also can potentially use the time saved to embark on new avenues of thought that remain unexplored. The aggregate result of this mental productivity is that many more concepts will be explored on the Thought Engine than if each person were to have to embark on their Mind Journeys alone without the benefit of guidance from those who have traveled along similar Mind Journeys before.

[0069] Digging a little deeper into the Thought Engine where each thought or concept is represented as a node and where the human input of Mind Maps is understood by the system as an overlay of relationships (links or synapses) between nodes, it becomes easy to understand how enabling the sharing of Mind Maps by all members will create within the Thought Engine itself an enormous variety of possible relationships between concepts and their associated informational content. This massive, overlayed dataset of myriad Mind Journeys (where each thought or concept is only represented once) will be the core of the Thought Engine and we refer to it as the "Global" core or a Mindex (the mind's index). Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that an individual human mind or even the world's most powerful super computer running the most advanced form of artificial intelligence currently available could create on its own such a network. Indeed, it is this vision of what the system can become and how it can be used that leads to the inspiring insight that usage of the Thought Engine by users could augment not only individual and collective human thinking and knowledge navigation and creation but even perhaps human and machine intelligence itself.

Search

[0070] If a user is not adding thoughts to the system, they can search it. Preferably, the interface for directing a search query to the Thought Engine is the same type of search text string box found on popular search engines. At this point there will be two options for further discovery: 1) the user can explore the individual Mind Journeys of other users who have used the same key word, perhaps from their group of Like Minds, but also from users unknown to them, or 2) the user can explore the combined output of the Global Thought Engine showing all links created from that key word or thought. Once a user has typed in a key word into the search box and issued the search query, the Thought Engine will present the user with a Mind Map interface described above. The central concept will show the word or words that the user typed into the search box. This allows users to explore one other mind at a time.

[0071] In the first search case (i.e. Journey search), the result will contain the title of individual Mind Journeys that the Thought Engine has found which contain the word that the user has typed into the search box, either as a central concept or as a second layer concept in one or more of the Mind Maps within that Mind Journey. By clicking on one of titles, the user can then choose the Mind Journey that seems most interesting and relevant to their needs to augment their thinking and knowledge navigation around a certain conceptual space or field of knowledge. The user could also browse the additional links to informational content related to that Mind Journey including informational content of various type (Web, Image, Video, Audio, Blog/RSS, and Book). The user will also be able to save any individual Mind Map or an entire

Mind Journey to their Mind Space.

[0072] In the second search case (Global search), the result will present existing thoughts of the most heavily weighted (see ranking) links to that concept from the Global database. The user can browse through deeper or less popular additional Mind Maps or select a wider view that zooms out on the additional branches, each of them selectable for further inquiry. [0073] The structure of the Thought Engine allows for novel search functions. For example, a centroid search will be capable of finding the thought most directly in contact between two or more separate terms. Because such a search is based on semantic links, and not text search alone, the relationship among certain concepts can be captured. The Thought Engine's meta search engine will also enable the user to use the thoughts in their Journeys as queries to all the major search engines. Such a tool will analyze the pattern of thoughts in a Mind Journey and seek similar patterns elsewhere. By adding or subtracting relevant key words from any collection of thoughts, the search can probe the most popular search engines as well as the content on the Global Thought Engine in stepwise fashion until a suitable focus is achieved.

[0074] Suppose an architect must design a way to cross a narrow body of water and during due diligence uses a traditional Internet search engine to search for the term "Bridge". She would no doubt retrieve lots of information about bridges. But suppose instead the search was performed in the Thought Engine and our architect comes across a Mind Journey which links bridge with roadways and tunnels. At that moment she is taught or led or remembers that of course a tunnel could also solve the problem.

[0075] It is very important to realize that the most popular search engines could not have helped the architect to think about tunnels when she was looking for answers about bridges. That search engine could help her find answers to the questions she had formed about "Bridges" but could not help her re- frame her question, and in this era finding the right question can be much more important than finding the right answer to the wrong question. In other words, the Thought Engine can potentially help you find what you don't know you are looking for.

[0076] It is at this point one realizes that the Thought Engine disclosed herein is not a new form of Search Engine, which is a way of helping a human find digital information, but a completely new tool that combines real human minds with the power and scale of the Internet via a Mind Map interface to provide a very practical way of augmenting individual and collective human thinking and knowledge navigation and creation. The Thought Engine is preferably an online, personalized, 24/7 brainstorming team and think-tank with potentially billions of team players.

Assignment by the Thought Engine of Quality or Value to Links and Mind Maps (Ranking) [0077] When a user searches for Mind Journeys on the Thought Engine, it is important that the Thought Engine returns search results which are valuable. Not all of the Mind Maps authored by users are of equal value. Some relationships between concepts are more valuable than others and some authors have a greater degree of authority than others. The Thought Engine will therefore assign a value to Mind Maps and an authority to Mind Map authors. The higher the value of a Mind Map and the authority of Mind Map authors, the higher any particular relevant Mind Map will appear in the search results when users search for individual thoughts or Mind Journeys on the Thought Engine. And the stronger any particular link will rank in search results from the Global Thought Engine. The preferred criteria for assigning value to Mind Maps and authority to Mind Map authors are as follows.

[0078] The coding, quantification, or ranking of these relationships involve at least four types of quality or value measures related to each linkage: a) The frequency which a linkage appears across all Mind Maps increases its ranking — a simple additive value based on occurrences of that link in the entire system. b) An individual with demonstrated authority, clout or acumen (defined as professional success or proclivity based on citation ranking and other objective measures of influence) will have their maps (related to their profession) ranked higher. (Gold Minds) c) The popularity of an individual's Mind Journey or Mind map (all links) as measured by how often it is linked by others to their own Mind Space or Mind Journeys will increase its ranking. d) The novelty of a link — whether it has occurred before and how new it is — will also be an important characteristic to capture in the database. Closely related to this is the recency at which the link was used or observed, which defines a temporal variable. e) In addition, in one embodiment, the Thought Engine will also allow users to vote against any particular existing link (but not remove it), a shaping reminiscent of synaptic activity that will help increase the ranking range of a particular link. Similarly, a link that is never used or observed will not grow in rank.

[0079] In one embodiment of the Thought Engine, the rank of any particular link will be displayed visually by making a thicker or brighter line (branch) between the nodes for a higher rank, or simply attaching a number to the link, or some similar visualization. [0080] While the ranking algorithms that utilize this information will constantly be updated according to need and using network theory, a very simple starting point is to assign a link rank mathematically as follows:

Link rank = |(a + d)| * b * c - e

[0081] Alternatively, in one embodiment each of these attributes could be ranked separately and the user given access to display and search the data using one or more of the attributes alone or in combination.

Social networking with "Like Minded" users on the Thought Engine

[0082] The Thought Engine not only enables users to discover conceptual connections but also human connections based on shared interests. Each person's Mind Space is not only a storage for their entire collection of Mind Journeys and other customizable biographical information if desired, but also a place which stores a list of the User IDs of all the "Like Minded" Thought Engine users linked from or linked to. In this way a kind of intellectual community of practice can develop around a shared conceptual interest between Thought Engine users. This can be done privately and one on one, or through the creation of a Think Tank specifically formed to build out certain domains of knowledge. Thought Engine users may interact through embedded messaging and forum functions, or choose to have their email or web site contact information available on their Mind Space so that other "Like Minded" members of their social network can contact them otherwise. Effective social networking between Like Minds may require an internal communication system that can take on several different attributes and forms including chat (text), voice, dynamic sensing of activity, question & answer dialogues, and other forms of communication. All of these functions may layer on top of a primary function of the Thought Engine, to build semantic relationships.

[0083] The Thought Engine preferably supports public, shared, and private Journeys,

Essays, and Think Tanks. Each user is preferably able to change the status of any document or map they authored. In one embodiment, a private Journey or Essay will display a lock symbol, and only public data can be observed by users that have not been invited to share an author's Journeys or Essays. Private data is preferably not included in the Global database. However, users will be strongly encouraged to make their non-sensitive data public in order to support the goal of making the Thought Engine more useful for everyone. This may involve time limits (so that all entered information eventually posts to the Global dataset). A suitable delay may protect those interested in maintaining security for patent applications, etc. [0084] Each Journey preferably displays the User ID of the author of that Mind

Journey. When the user clicks on this User ID they connect to the public Mind Space of the author, hi this way they will also be able to connect to and explore other Mind Journeys created by that author that may also be of interest to the user.

[0085] The Thought Engine may also automatically present users with a list of Like

Minds that are selected from their similar interests or thought patterns. In other words, not only can users invite people they know to their Journeys, but the Thought Engine may recommend people they don't know to include based on similar Mind Space data.

[0086] Users of the Thought Engine may also have several ways to export their

Journeys and information outside of the system. Besides embedding URL links or linkable images of specific Journeys in other blogs and websites, the user is preferably able to output their data in several forms. Visual maps or graphs may be saved in standard image file format like .jpg or .gif, and a table or list of the thoughts in a Journey can be copied or saved to a separate file.

REVENUE GENERATION

Input by Companies and Organizations of Brand Map Advertising

[0087] Just as a user may create a Mind Map on the Thought Engine to record and share their thoughts, companies may create a Brand Map on the Thought Engine to share with all the users who visit the Thought Engine either directly via the website or indirectly via third party informational content that is linked in one way or another to the Thought Engine.

[0088] A company may create a Brand Map on the Thought Engine by using a similar

Mind Map interface used by individual users of the system. The purpose of creating a brand map may be to tie the company brands to concepts that the company would like to associate with these brands in the minds of users of the Thought Engine. For example, a popular beverage company may want to tie its brand (the central concept of a Brand Map) with the second layer concepts "Refreshing" "Cool" "and "Desire" and a popular automobile company may want to tie their brand to the concept of "Safety" and "Luxury". In addition to creating conceptual links, a company or organization can create links to informational content elsewhere on the Internet about brands or products. A Brand Map may be used to inform, entertain and connect with their potential customers while at the same time communicating a consistent message about the company's values as well as its products. [0089] In one embodiment, Brand Maps are stored by companies and organizations in a Brand Space which is a similar interface to the Mind Space used by other users of the system and is the central base for that company and organization on the Thought Engine. Companies and organizations must pay a monthly subscription to the Thought Engine to maintain their Brand Space and store all their Brand Maps in the system. The monthly subscription is calculated in part based on the total number of conceptual connections of all the Brand Maps in the company's or organization's Brand Space.

Input of Links to Brand Maps by Users of the Thought Engine

[0090] In one embodiment, in order to input and store Mind Journeys and Mind Maps in a personal Mind Space a user must agree, or is given incentive, to link their Mind Space to Brand Maps that have been created by companies and/or organizations. The user is able to explore all of the Brand Maps and then select some minimum number of Brand Maps that the user genuinely feels good will towards based on their experience or aspiration, and is therefore prepared to endorse. Once these Brand Maps have been chosen, they are aggregated into a Mind Journey called "My brands" in that user's Mind Space. For example, a user who genuinely enjoys driving a Lexus, drinking Coffee at Starbucks, and listening to music on an Ipod would be able to create a Mind Journey in their Mind Space called "My brands" which contained links to the Lexus, Starbucks, and Ipod Brand Maps and perhaps more that the user feels goods will towards and is therefore prepared to endorse.

User Output and Exploration of Brand Maps

[0091] Preferably, a user who accesses the Thought engine directly or indirectly through a third party location on the Internet in order to explore the Mind Maps, Mind Journeys and Mind Spaces of other users is therefore also able to explore the Brands that have been endorsed by these "Like Minded" users. In this way Brand advertising on the Thought Engine, while still commercial, is also given a social personality which is tied to the minds of real people using the system. The inventors believe this is a highly effective way of building and reinforcing brands with an authentic "personality" that can not be achieved by other means of advertising on the Internet. The ranking of Brand Maps based on user input will therefore become a competitive advantage for companies and organizations, and this ranking will be shown to all users. In this way, the user will have access to advertising that is based on aggregate individual value recommendations rather than simply which company has the largest advertising budget.

Premium services

[0092] In one embodiment, revenue may be generated by charging users for extra functions and storage, etc, that would not be available for free to all users of the Thought Engine. Examples of such functions are the higher level search and build capabilities described herein, or recommendations by the Thought Engine regarding new thoughts or Like Minds.

Individual use fee

[0093] hi one embodiment, individual users will be able to select from their Journeys or Think Tanks material that they will offer to other users based on a fee or point system. This "Penny for your Thoughts" fee-based idea sharing rewards individuals who develop a reputation for having interesting or useful thoughts and information in their Mind Space. Users who reach a certain level of use by other users may be given the title of "Gold Minds", which further increases the likelihood that more users will pay to access their Journeys. Gold Mind thoughts and links also rank more highly in the Thought Engine calculation of link value. The fee for sharing information is preferably not be unduly large, and may also be based on demand and specialization of the knowledge, hi this revenue model, the Thought Engine may collect some small fraction of each transaction.

Link ownership and point system

[0094] In one embodiment, a link ownership and reward system for the use of those links by other users of the Thought Engine may reward novelty, incentivize users to build the database, and also to make their Journeys Public. The basic idea is that there is a time stamp and record of each time a novel link between two thoughts is made. The creator of that link then has precedence of ownership based on their position in line of when that link was first made. In other words, if UserX is the first one to make a particular link, he or she "owns" the rights to that link 100%. Regardless of whether this is a common association in the world, the first time it is created in the Thought Engine is the prime ownership position.

[0095] The next time a person creates the same link independently in their own

Journey (User Y), they receive a percent of the ownership of that link based on a decaying exponential (or other) formula to calculate total ownership of the link. Say once there are two creators of that link, the first, UserX, now has 70% ownership, and the second, UserY, has 30%. This continues ad infinitum but in a way such that the first creator of the link, UserX, will always have the greatest percentage of ownership, such that there exists a "long tail" of ownership, where for example the millionth creator of the link has some very tiny fraction percentage, but UserX will basically asymptote around 5% ownership or whatever may be appropriate.

[0096] Ownership preferably occurs despite whether the links are in a private or public journey. But the owners of that link will only be "paid" in a point or credit system when their link is made available in a public journey for the Global database, and another user visualizes or "uses" the link. In that case a point or some fraction of a point (based on their ownership percentage) goes to their credit account for the use. These points can then be exchanged for rebates and discounts, cash, or even shares in the company.

[0097] Various combinations of the above revenue generating processes may also be implemented in order to support the upkeep and growth of the Thought Engine and its employees and owners.

CODING AND STRUCTURE OF THE THOUGHT ENGINE

[0098] hi a preferred embodiment, the Thought Engine is coded using Ruby programming language and the Ruby on Rails open source web application framework in a Model- View-Controller design paradigm. The code describes a relational database with four interconnected, continually aggregating data tables. These four tables can be described as separate data elements in the Thought Engine and comprise (as shown in Figure 3) of Nodes and Node Links in the physical structure of the network, and Thoughts and Branches (semantic links) as their corresponding semantic counterparts. Each table contains additional columns that define semantic classes and other variables. A particular Mind Journey is a collection of Nodes, and a Think Tank can be a collection of Mind Journeys.

[0099] A filtering algorithm simplifies textual data entered into the Thoughts table to remove Capitalization, plural forms of words, extra spaces, and numeric and non-alphabetic characters into a text string that is either recognized as existing or new into the Nodes table. Likewise, the coding maps the relational links entered as branches between thoughts as unique Node Links in that table. In addition, a Node Link is defined in each direction between two Nodes, so that polarity and asymmetry can also be defined. [00100] A preferred key functionality of the coding is the creation of an abstraction of all re-uses of the same text string so that it can be considered one thing. That thought's relationship to other nodes in the network is continually defined as new links (branches) are made. The program therefore recognizes the uniqueness of each particular text string and can collapse all branches to that element across all data entered into the Thought Engine. This summary collapse is termed the "Global" database and embodies the "Mindex". [00101] Those practiced in the art will recognize that the former functionality could also be constructed using other programming languages and methods.

Other value-added functional consequences of the Thought Engine

[00102] The inventors believe the growing database of the Thought Engine will become a highly useful filter and resource for an increasing platform of tools, plug-ins, and programs working to interact and integrate with the Thought Engine and with data and information available in the world wide web. The inventors further believe the Global "Mindex" to be a new type of human index necessary and sufficient for a myriad of textual searching, compiling, organization, and automatic action capabilities.

Learning unexpected associations/brainstorming

[00103] In one embodiment, a tool called a Thought Agent can probe the Thought

Engine and suggest a link to the user from a search query string that matches a pattern in an existing Mind Journey or in the Global Thought Engine. For example, the query "fruit" would now return a link to "carbonation", a novel association (Fizzy Fruit) only a few years old that has led to an entirely new food category. Similarly, by exploring the Global database or Like Minds on topics of interest, the user may discover the thoughts of others that could lead them to novel solutions and new information that might not necessarily surface with contemporary search engines. In one embodiment, the Thought Agent uses an algorithm which detects at least five similar phrases within two nodal distances of each other between two independent Journeys, and notifies each user of the existence of the other.

"Semantic Web" Interaction with the Thought Engine

[00104] The data input by users into the Thought Engine is preferably accessible to intelligent agents and other current and future applications envisaged by proponents of the semantic web. In order to enable this, the thoughts and their semantic relationships and links to informational content is preferably encoded in machine readable semantic web compliant data that is useful to artificial intelligence, intelligent agents and other types of "semantic web" software applications on the Internet.

Web crawling and automatic Journey building

[00105] Many existing systems now have the capability of processing text automatically and generating cloud tags of keywords and even connectivity between them based on text proximity and other linguistic rules (e.g. latent semantic indexing, e.g. Topicalizer). But the trick remains of how to make meaningful links between all of the keywords automatically. The Thought Engine makes possible a web research tool which would search the web based on a string of search terms, then automatically condense and collate a collection of articles or sources into one Mind Map with the salient concepts. One possibility would be for existing semantic indexing technology to generate a tag cloud of the common terms and their proximity, etc, in the documents and then let the Thought Engine user manipulate the words in a visual click and drag interface that would allow quick physical reorganization of the terms plus point and click link- making between them. This would require human input but be much faster than building the Map from scratch. Another strategy is to let the Thought Engine find the tag cloud with the existing technology, but then cross-reference the cloud to the Global Mindex database for clues about proper connectivity between the terms. The inventors determined that this would require a highly populated database as reference to work effectively. The Thought Engine's relational database preferably can be cross-referenced not only to give semantic links to keywords culled by latent semantic indexing of other written material, but also as a filter and functional index for other textual and Mind Map data.

Mind Journey defined agent crawlers

[00106] In one embodiment, a mature Thought Engine tool may specify agent web crawlers searching for patterns taught from authored Mind Journeys and also content on the world wide web and periodically reporting suggested links back to the user. Timepoints/Zeitgeist

[00107] In one embodiment, by tracking the linkage relationships through time a highly accurate and rich historical record can be made. This may require back-up (and continuous updates) of time-stamped instantiations of the Thought Engine. Furthermore, historians and individuals could select a Thought Engine year in the past and provide data and links that will build a novel historical record of that time period that can incorporate personal information and subjective associations.

Geneology

[00108] The Thought Engine format makes a natural framework for building genealogical datasets (e.g. see http://imindi.com/journeys/149-home/maps/3188220-galen-d- kaufman) and any other social network. In addition to lineage, other descriptive and historical thoughts and data can be linked to individuals to form a seamless presentation. Sports teams, military hierarchy, and corporate governance would also be represented efficiently by the descriptive system of the Thought Engine.

[00109] Figure 4 illustrates the claims in Mind Map format. Such a format readily depicts the interrelationships between various dependent claims and claim elements. As shown, the dependent claims, such as claims 18-24, extend or radiate outward from a central concept (claim 1). Such claims are linked back to the central concept, each having a trace or path back to the central concept, and each dependent claim adding limitations to those of its parent, the broader independent claim 1. A more complex branch is formed by the path from claim 1 to claim 8. In that branch, the central concept (claim 1) relates to the aspects (and in this case, claim limitations) in claim 2 (graphical user interface), claim 3 (Mind Map), claim 4 (two-level Mind Map), claim 6 (added levels/zoom), and finally claim 8 (branch navigation). Moving away from the central independent claim 1, each dependent claim adds further limitations to those represented by the claim (or node) before it.

[00110] Figure 4 also illustrates how visualization using a Mind Map may be used to highlight differences in the types of relationships between nodes. For example, the central concept (of claim 1) includes the elements a-f (shown using rectangular shapes instead of elliptical shapes) whereas claims depending from claim 1 necessarily include all of the elements a-f. [00111] One of the benefits of using such a visual representation is the ease with which various aspects related to the central concept (claim 1) may be identified and interrelated. By contrast, the numerically listed claims require more careful study, although the listing clearly presents greater detail for any particular claim (because the Mind Map illustration, as shown in Figure 4, is limited by the amount of space available for the illustration and interrelated elements).

[00112] Figure 5 is an illustration of what the inventors believe are concepts that are integrated into a Thought Engine, in a preferred embodiment. Such a Thought Engine (referred to by the inventors as IMIND I) integrates the benefits of: 1) a web based Like Minds network (providing interaction or awareness of other users and other users' Mind Journeys); 2) various web based resources (accessible through the Internet or other similar networks); and 3) a web based thought semantic index (referred to as a Mindex), Mind Map input/output of data, and semantic web formatting of data. Integrating these may be analogized as bringing together sides in order to form a whole unit (pictured in Figure 5 as a cube), the combination providing users with opportunities and functionalities previously unavailable.

[00113] The Thought Engine described may be viewed as an unconstrained and unmanaged engine of Knowledge Creation using the process of collaboration to build a novel database (referred to as the Mindex). The inventors note that idea generation is part of the process of Knowledge Creation but will often involve building on the shoulders of giants from established and mature areas of knowledge. It is typically the combination, integration and synthesis of these areas which creates knowledge: this is a social activity and something that the Thought Engine is preferably very well placed to achieve.

[00114] The Thought Engine, the inventors anticipate, will become a powerful tool because: a) the Thought Engine is envisioned users to radiate and connect ideas using Mind Map methods, b) thoughts and ideas may be recorded as nodes in a database that can be tied to relevant resources, and c) it comprises an open social network on the Internet that everyone can contribute to at what ever privacy level they feel comfortable with (Individual/Group/Global). Thoughts from one person may be connected with thoughts from another and existing knowledge may be integrated and built upon in order to create new Knowledge.

[00115] Figure 7 is an illustration of an exemplary Thought Engine 700, comprising a

Mind Map user interface 720, storage 710, features 702-708, and supported applications 712- 718. Exemplary features may include facilities for handling user Mind Space 702 information, facilities for supporting Think Tank 704 information, and facilities for managing user Mind Journey 706 information. Additional facilities may be included for supporting tag cloud 708 functionality for web crawling.

[00116] Thought Engine 700 preferably includes storage 710, which may comprise a database (or relational database) for storing and managing Mindex information. Further, Thought Engine 700 preferably comprises facilities for providing various applications such as Imindi Write 712, Imindi Search 714, Thought Agent 716, Thought Guide 717, and Imindi This! (bookmark).

[00117] Figure 8 is an exemplary system and network for a Thought Engine. Thought

Engine 700 may be implemented using various methods, hi one embodiment, Thought Engine 700 comprises programming instructions residing on a server 802 or group of servers 802, 804, 806 connected to a network such as the Internet 800. In another embodiment, the Thought Engine 700 may be implemented over a distributed network of multiple servers. For example, servers 802, 804, 806 may be distributed over a network (such as the Internet 800 or other public or private network) to cooperatively function with other servers or groups of servers 808, 810, 812. Core data comprising the Global Mindex may reside within storage and relational database memory associated with one or more of the servers 802-812, or such data may be consolidated or backed-up at a centralized or separate storage facility 814, which itself may be located away from other servers and connected to such servers over a network 800 such as ^'the Internet.

[00118] Prospective users of the Thought Engine may gain access to a web page supported by, for example, a server 802, from a personal computer 816 with access to the network 800 (i.e. Internet). The personal computer 816 may comprise a typical computer with access to network functions using standard web browser software to connect with Thought Engine related web pages. Alternatively, a computer 816 may itself include client software designed to communicate and function with the Thought Engine or designed to provide features and/or applications associated with the Thought Engine. If the computer 816 requires software for accessing the Thought Engine or software with programming instructions that provide Thought Engine functionality, a computer readable medium may be used for storing the needed programming instructions. Such computer readable medium may comprise any kind of computer memory such as, but not limited to, floppy disks, conventional hard disks, CD-ROMS, Flash ROMS, nonvolatile ROM, and RAM.

[00119] Other arrangements are possible. For example, user personal computers 820,

822, 824, 826 may be connected to the network by a network access provider 818 (such as an Internet Service Provider). The users of such computers may then access web pages associated with the Thought Engine.

[00120] Figure 9 is a graphic illustration of utilities and concepts encompassed by an exemplary Thought Engine, according to a preferred embodiment. As shown, the dashed line circle represents the space within which the Thought Engine provides value to users, according to preferred embodiments and according to the goals of the present inventors. Along the horizontal axis (the social dynamic axis), various activities, facilities, and services range from public to private. Along the vertical axis (the thought organization axis), the same activities, facilities, and services are stratified from loose (less organized) to highly structured (more ordered/organized). As shown the relative scope covered by the Thought Engine is huge when compared to other activities, facilities, and services. For example, search engines involve private use (typically not shared) but use that may range from highly unstructured to highly structured. E-mail may fall in the middle. Wikis by their very nature (as collaborative websites whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it), are more public than not and are perhaps neither unstructured or overly structured. Social networking websites and web based services may tend to be less structured. Blogs are perhaps even less structured and typically very public. Media (on-line media) tends to be highly structured as compared with blogs. Other web-related features and utilities - organizational intranet, FTTP server, desktop file manager - exemplify high structure and the full range of social dynamic, from the often public focus (especially for large company intranets) to the very private nature of how an individual chooses to arrange their environment using a desktop file manager.

[00121] By contrast, the Thought Engine provides activities, facilities, and services that involve more breadth in terms of the social dynamic and thought organization aspects, as depicted in Figure 9.

[00122] Another observation made by the inventors is that the Thought Engine can harness the communities that already exist in blogs and on-line media, and help integrate those sites using the functionality of the Thought Engine to improve and augment the collective intelligence of its users and those that comment on the postings. For example, instead of a linear string of disjointed comments after your favorite on-line newspaper's article, the Thought Engine could base the resulting discussion around themes or talking points that are mapped out in Mind Map format and allow the commentators to follow the appropriate path most related to their point. Such benefits are not limited to blogs, but rather any media which seeks user input (e.g. reader comments, etc, i.e. collective intelligence) likely benefits. [00123] The terms and expressions which have been employed in the foregoing specification are used therein as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding equivalence of the features shown and described or portions thereof, it being recognized that the scope of the invention is defined and limited only by the claims which follow.

Claims

Claim(s) We claim:

1) A method for augmenting individual and collective human thinking and knowledge navigation and creation, the method comprising: a) providing an Internet based software application, relational database and storage infrastructure, which together comprise a Thought Engine; b) enabling users to input and store concepts and the semantic relationships between concepts, into the Thought Engine; c) enabling users to input and store links from concepts in the Thought Engine to related informational content elsewhere on the Internet; d) enabling users to input and store links from concepts that they have input into the Thought Engine to concepts that other users have input into the Thought Engine; e) enabling users to output, search and navigate all the concepts and the semantic relationships between concepts on the Thought Engine and links to informational content stored elsewhere on the Internet; and f) enabling users to use the Thought Engine to create, connect, search and explore a network of concepts and links to relevant informational content on the Internet.

2) The method of claim 1 where a graphical user interface is provided for the input, storage, output, search and navigation of concepts and the relationships between other concepts in the Thought Engine and links to informational content stored elsewhere on the Internet.

3) The method of claim 2 where the graphical user interface is a "Mind Map" comprising of a concept expressed as a word or combination of words contained in a central circle or oval which is connected to other "branch" concepts expressed as a word or combination of words contained in rectangles by curved lines.

4) The method of claim 3 where the "Mind Map" user interface visible to the user at any given time contains only two levels consisting of a central concept and a second layer of "branch" concepts connected to the central concept.

5) The method of claim 3 where the "Mind Map" user interface visible to the user at any given time contains a maximum of six "branch" concepts connected to the central concept.

6) The method of claim 4 where the user is able to add further levels of concepts by opening up multiple new Mind Map interfaces where the central concept of a new Mind Map interface is automatically set by the Thought Engine to the same branch concept that connected to this new Mind Map.

7) The method of claim 5 where the user is able to add more than six branch concepts connected to the central concept by opening up multiple new Mind Map interfaces where the central concept of the new Mind Map interface is automatically set by the Thought Engine to the same central concept that was connected to the previous six branches concepts.

8) The method of claim 6 where the user is able to explore and navigate between concepts by "clicking" on any "branch concept" and exploring other Mind Maps which are connected to that particular "branch concept" in the Thought Engine.

9) The method of claim 3 where the user is able to input links to informational content on the Internet into text strings connected to either the central or branch concepts of the Mind Map user interface.

10) The method of claim 9 where the links to informational content on the Internet include links to Web Sites, Web Log Postings, RSS Feeds, Audio files, Video files, image files, books, online documents and other Mind Maps on the Thought Engine.

11) The method of claim 3 where the user is able to output, search and navigate links to informational content on the Internet by "clicking" on the central concept or branch concepts on any Mind Map and exploring links to informational content that the author of a Mind Map has connected to those concepts.

12) The method of claim 3, where the user is able to aggregate connected Mind Maps into a broader Mind Journey which is a sustained and continued "train of thought" about a general conceptual area of interest.

13) The method of claim 12 where the users is able to aggregate an entire collection of Mind Journeys and Mind Maps, that they have authored or copied from others users into a Mind Space which is a personal storage space on the Thought Engine.

14) The method of claim 1 where the concepts, the semantic relationships between the concepts and the links to informational content are encoded in the Thought Engine in such a way that is semantically meaningful and useful to artificial intelligence and other types of "semantic web" software applications on the Internet.

15) The method of claim 1 where the Thought Engine is able to assign an authority value ranking to concepts, the semantic relationships between concepts stored in the Thought Engine and the links to informational content input and stored elsewhere on the Internet. 16) The method of claim 15 where users can output, search, navigate and explore in order of authority value ranking, the concepts, the semantic relationships between concepts stored in the Thought Engine and the links to informational content input and stored elsewhere on the Internet.

17) The method of claim 1 where users are enabled to discover other "Like Minded" users who are thinking about similar concepts and to form a social network on the system with these "Like Minded" users, and "Gold Minds" are users with higher perceived value content.

18) The method of claim 1 where users may access the Thought Engine via a personal computer, mobile telephone, television or any other suitable device connected to the Internet.

19) The method of claim 1 where users may interact with the Thought Engine via a mouse, keyboard digital pen or by using their own voice.

20) The method of claim 1 where users may access the Thought Engine directly from a specific website on the Internet.

21) The method of claim 1 where users may access the Thought Engine indirectly from third party sites on the Internet by "clicking" on embedded links created by authors of informational content from the informational content that they have authored to the concepts that they have input into the Thought Engine.

22) The method of claim 1 where users may access the Thought Engine directly from a software application that the user must download and install onto their personal computer or other Internet connected device.

23) The method of claim 1 where users may access the Thought Engine indirectly from third party sites on the Internet by using a Search Box connected to the Thought Engine which has been embedded into multiple third party web sites.

24) The method of claim 1 where users may access the Thought Engine indirectly while browsing the Internet by using Thought Engine "plug-in" software tools that can be downloaded and installed onto all popular Internet browser applications.

25) The method of claim 1 where companies and organizations can advertise to users of the Thought Engine by paying to input concepts related to brands, products and services on the Thought Engine and links to informational content elsewhere on the Internet.

26) The method of claim 25 where users can output, search, navigate and explore, concepts related to brands, products and services input and stored as paid advertising in the Thought Engine by companies and organizations and the links to informational content that they have input and stored elsewhere on the Internet.

27) The method of claim 25 where user of the Thought Engine are enabled to input and store concepts, the semantic relationships between concepts stored in the Thought Engine and the links to informational content input and stored elsewhere on the Internet free of charge in return for connecting to a set number of concepts related to brands, products and services stored in the system as paid advertising by companies and organizations.

28) The method of claim 27 where the Thought Engine only displays connections from the concepts and information inputted by users to the concepts related to brands or products inputted and stored in the system as paid advertising by companies and organizations that a user genuinely chooses to endorse based on a genuinely positive good will by users towards the brands, products and services of these companies and organizations that they choose to connect to rather than based on purely commercial incentives.

29) The method of claim 28 where the Thought Engine is able to provide a new "social" type of Internet based brand marketing service for companies and organizations whose effectiveness compared with alternative online advertising services is tied more to how much authentic good will the brands, products, and services of these companies and organizations can build in the minds of the direct and indirect users of the Thought Engine and less on how much money these companies and organizations can afford to spend on marketing.

30) A system comprising a user interface for communication with a database having stored Mind Maps therein, said Mind Maps accessible to a user via said user interface

31) The system of claim 30, further comprising at least one of the features described in the specification filed herewith.

32) A system comprising a user interface for communication with said system having access to Mind Maps linked thereto, said Mind Maps accessible to a user via said user interface.

33) The system of claim 32, further comprising at least one of the features described in the specification filed herewith.

34) A system having access to Mind Maps linked thereto and capable of receiving inputs from and delivering outputs to a user interface, said Mind Maps being accessible to a user via said user interface.

35) The system of claim 34, further comprising at least one of the features described in the specification filed herewith. 36) A method comprising at least one of the steps of claim 1.

37) The method of claim 36, further comprising at least one of the steps of claims 2-29.

38) A system capable of performing at least one of the steps of claim 1.

39) The system of claim 38, further capable of performing at least one of the steps of claims 2-29.

40) An apparatus capable of performing any portion of any of the steps of claims 1-29.

41) A system as described in the specification filed herewith.

42) A method as described in the specification filed herewith.

43) An apparatus as described in the specification filed herewith.

44) Any feature, method, system, apparatus, or portion thereof, as in the specification filed herewith, whether such is claimed in the claims or described in the written description portion of said specification.

45) The method of claim 1 where users input essays or blogs which are automatically hyperlinked (marked-up) to the Thought Engine by choosing a Mind Journey(s) which populates the links based on existing nodes in the journey.

46) The method of claim 1 where users activate a software agent crawler which independently gathers relevant Internet links based on nodes from a specified Mind Journey and certain search criteria and provides those links periodically to the user.

47) The method of claim 1 where the Thought Engine separates and instantiates historical timepoints to user inputs such that a user can add relevant links and thoughts to a Mind Map database specified to a previous date, e.g. 1865 Civil War or genealogies, and these databases are maintained as a subset of the Global data.

48) The method of claim 1 where the Thought Engine tracks link ownership and provides a usage point system.

49) The method of claim 1 where the Thought Engine provides fee-based access to individual user data with a percent contribution to the company.

50) The method of claim 1 where the Thought Engine enables groups of users to use Think Tanks.

51) The method of claim 1 where the Thought Engine provides Figure 2 related interface functions (i.e. visualizing loopbacks, background Global data, etc.). 52) The method of claim 1 where the Thought Engine provides new search capabilities based on Journey patterns and integration with other web data.

53) The method of claim 1 where an external search query returns keywords generated by latent semantic indexing software, and those keywords are organized into a summary Mind Map by: 1) presenting the keywords in a visual format which the user can quickly drag and drop and link up in their logic or personal fashion, or 2) automatically generate by probing the Global/Mindex for appropriate keyword linkages from previous inputs.

54) The method of claim 1 where the resulting database instantiates a new type of index based on high-level thoughts and their association generated by humans (i.e. Mindex).

55) The method of claim 1 where dynamic temporal activity layered on to the nodal architecture produces machine attention to recent events.