On Everything 2.0

2.0 is now in common usage.  There is

• Web 2.0
• Where 2.0
• Business 2.0
• Office 2.0
• Enterprise 2.0
• Advertising 2.0
• Voice 2.0

and even

• Lunch 2.0

Today I saw the terms  Business Development 2.0 and Hindsight 2.0 (both posts are worth reading, BTW).     Somewhere along the way "2.0" developed a new meaning.  Rather than question it and argue about 2.0 v. 1.0, I think there is a much better solution. Let's do what politicians do - change the rules to fit our belief system.

Announcing Arithmetic 2.0
Or simply A2 (not A3 or A9).  A2 is a more collaborative model for Arithmetic 1.0 in which numbers are actually socially shared symbols.  These symbols we called “digits” in Arithmetic 1.0, but digits were constrained to be a limited number of values.  The 10-digit limitation inhibited personal numeric expression.  This so-called “standard” was a mathematical monopoly that was controlled by a small academic, mathematical community, a.k.a. “Mathcrosoft”, which operated and managed A1 for their own benefit.

Arithmetic 2.0 is essentially an Open Source project in which (1) the primary symbols of Arithmetic 2.0 are extensible and (2) no one actually controls Arithmetic operations in a top-down way.

A2 Extensibility
A1 had ten symbols previously called digits. The symbols were fixed name-value pairs.  In A2, there are an infinite number of symbols and these symbols are tagged with values.  Tagging allows the community of users of the symbols to use their collective intelligence to imbue the symbols with meaning. 

The first application of this collaborative principle is the use of the symbol string “2.0”.  It now no longer means second in a series.   Nor does it mean major transition to be followed by a series of minor transitions, as “. 0” would have suggested.   Now “2.0” means, “new, better, and hip.”  This numerical expressiveness can only be achieved with Arithmetic 2.0 and the use of 2.0 as tag.  (See? and you thought this would screw everything up!)

A2 Operators
Lest anyone be concerned, A2 is still arithmetic.  But fixed operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division no longer apply.  They are so A1.   And the guy who first developed these probably never even blogged about them. (Or even announced A1 on Techcrunch).  In A2, these fixed operators are replaced by living, breathing processes called addikis, subikis, multikis, and divikis that allow operations to evolve and discover the true result of the operation by collaboration.   

A1 has i  - the square root of –1.  A2 has 2.0 2.0.   The reflexive property in 2.0 2.0 is very useful in factoring complex collaborations, real or fixed, into A2 primes. It is essential in parsing Everything 2.0.

I think the best ideas are those that can be consumed easily and intuitively. So I will not dwell on Arithmetic 2.0 much further.  But I do want to point out that one of the real advantages of A2 is that constants are no longer constant.  Pi and e can be combined to create a new concept called Pie. And Pie can have a meaning unto its own, and be consumed in mashups (as in Pie on GoogleMaps), whereas Pi and e cannot. This is the beginning of the Holy Grail, the Semantic Arithmetic.  The proof is left to the surfer.

I hereby offer Arithmetic 2.0 to the Web community as a new meme, to be freely quoted (with scornful attribution).  However I reserve the exclusive right to the commercial use of the term for any Arithmetic 2.0 conferences in the future.  And the t-shirts.

Comments

[Fraser]

Don't forget networking 2.0

[Dharmesh Shah]

Brilliantly funny.

In the spirit of communal contribution and openness, I humbly offer the following:

In arithmetic 2.0, all numbers have the property such that when the classic modulus operator is applied, and regardless of the operand supplied, the remainder is always zero. As such, nothing remains and everything is by definition the lowest common denominator.

[Peter Armstrong]

You missed the original pop culture "Version 2.0", which is a Garbage CD. (Maybe they should get a cut of O'Reilly's conference revenue?) So, you can say pithy things like Web 2.0 is Garbage and see who gets it :)

[Peter Rip]

Oh this is too much fun. Great comments.

[Jacoby Thwaites]

Can you help me Dr Rip? I think I just evolved into Me 2.0

[vinnie]

you forgot the best of two dot ohh - bowling 2.0 (http://bowling20.net)

[Jacoby Thwaites]

Honestly, the originality bar is too high nowadays. You can't say a thing without it being old.

http://seblogging.cognitivearchitects.com/discuss/msgReader$1680?mode=day

Let's join together, grit our teeth and turn off the internet.

[Greg]

Another jawdropping example over at CNN where they are hyping a new documentary on Osama Bin Laden as "Terror 2.0"

Almost too ridiculous to be true... but you can check it out here:

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/presents/index.html

[jim Forbes]

Peter, your a viscious man. Try Retirement 2.0, where you engage in prostate chat with other dudes at the doc's office and lunch becomes a lifestyle choice, rather than a social or business date.
But hey, somewhere in the world an antique tractor, or a big ass View camera await us all in our not-so zippy retirement years.
Best
Jim Forbes
(from my little mountaintop just to the right and north of the intersection of rural America and metropolitan San Diego)