Curiosity
What curiosity is—and how it differs from novelty, interest, surprise and information seeking.
Read the working paper →Research programme
Seven domains informing one practical question.
The programme draws from cognitive science, narrative, museum interpretation, information architecture and knowledge representation. These papers are working research instruments—not a claim that the theory is complete.
The main research question
Can we intentionally design environments that cultivate curiosity through meaningful connection?
Knowledge & Meaning
How new information becomes meaningful by connecting with prior knowledge, schemas, analogies and mental models.
Read the working paper →Narrative
How relationships can become a coherent interpretation without forcing users through a linear sequence.
Read the working paper →Museum Interpretation
How objects, context, visitor agency and interpretive framing can reveal meaning rather than merely deliver facts.
Read the working paper →Knowledge Representation
How entities, relationships, evidence and interpretation can be represented without confusing the model with reality.
Read the working paper →Information Architecture
How organisation, labelling, search, exploration and information scent influence whether a connection is followed.
Read the working paper →Patterns Across Disciplines
How structural patterns and carefully bounded analogies may support transfer and deeper understanding.
Read the working paper →Emerging synthesis
Connections alone are not enough.
The research currently suggests a set of constraints that the practical work must test.
Connection must be intelligible
The user needs to understand the relationship basis—not only see that two things have been linked.
Meaning depends on context
A new fact becomes useful when it can be integrated with prior knowledge, a situation, a motif or an explanatory frame.
Agency matters
The user should decide which thread to follow, while the system remains responsible for evidence, wording and coherence.
Analogy requires boundaries
A Structural Echo should state what is shared, why it matters and where the comparison stops.
A note on legacy terminology
Some earlier domain drafts contain v0.1/v0.2 ideas such as “doorways.” This site summarises the current v0.3 direction; the source papers are preserved as working research history rather than silently rewritten.