The Future of Post-Human Graphical Analysis
Two Volume Set

Book Abstract

Are graphs really so applicable or useful that, as the old saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”? (BR 2016) This flattering view on graphs can be contrasted with the critical one by the math historian Kenneth May, who once reminded us, in the context of the “four-color theorem” as an illustrative example, that “maps utilizing only four colors are rare…Books on cartography and the history of mapmaking do not mention the four-color property.” (WK 2016; R. Wilson 2014). Contrary to these opposing views (and other ones as will be discussed in the book), graphical analysis, for the study of graphs (in relation to applicability and non-applicability) is neither possible (or impossible) nor desirable (or undesirable) to the extent that the respective ideologues (on different sides) would like us to believe

Moreover, this challenge to the conventional debate does not mean that graphical analysis is worthless, or that those diverse fields (related to graphical analysis)—like computer science, mathematics, graphic design, visual arts, cartography, logic, graphics, linguistics, social network analysis, typology, computational neuroscience, cognitive psychology, molecular graphics, probabilistic graphical modeling, aesthetics, and so on—should be ignored. On the contrary, neither of these extreme views is reasonable.

Instead, this book offers an alternative (better) way to understand the future of graphical analysis (and related fields) in regard to the dialectic relationship between applicability and non-applicability—while learning from different approaches in the literature but without favoring any one of them (nor integrating them, since they are not necessarily compatible with each other). More specifically, this book offers a new theory (that is, the double-edged theory of graphical analysis) to go beyond the existing approaches in a novel way and is organized in four chapters.

This seminal project will fundamentally change the way that we think about graphical analysis (in relation to the dialectic relationship between applicability and non-applicability) from the combined perspectives of the mind, nature, society, and culture, with enormous implications for the human future and what I originally called its “post-human” fate.