Hypertext (noun): machine-readable text that is not sequential but is organized so that related items of information are connected.
A body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper. Hypertext resists the single linear narrative. Thoughts, also, resist the single linear narrative.
On interpreting lossy mediums:
When we talk together, we flatten our N-dimensional thoughts into 1D linear narratives, in order to fit them through the 1D bottleneck of words. When we draw or sketch, we flatten our N-dimensional thoughts into 2D images in order to fit them through the 2D bottleneck of sight.
On knowledge:
“In an important sense there are no subjects at all; there is only all knowledge, since the cross-connections among the myriad topics of this world simply cannot be divided up neatly. Hypertext offers the possibility of representing and exploring it all without carving it up destructively.” - Ted Nelson
See also: Convergence and Divergence
On common rules of protocol:
“If the rules governing hypertext links between servers and browsers stayed simple, then our web of a few documents could grow to a global web. The art was to define the few basic, common rules of “protocol” that would allow one computer to talk to another, in such a way that when all computers everywhere did it, the system would thrive, not break down.” - Tim Berner’s Lee, 2000, “Weaving the Web”