Luhmann's slip box
Prompted by the frequently asked question of what criteria were used to construct his slip box. Luhmann readily provides insight into the system's architecture and specifics.
"By the way, a lot of people have come here to look at it." (Luhmann, Niklas, 1987, Archimedes und wir. Interviews. Edited by Dirk Baecker and Georg Stanitzek, Merve Verlag, Berlin, p. 142.)
The writing instrument becomes an object of desire, especially for young academics who want to add to their carefully planned careers an equally manageable card index.
"Fred wants ti be a university teacher after all". (Klassen, Ralf, 1994, Bezaubernde Jeannie oder Liebe ist nur ein Zeitvertreib, in: Wüllenweber, Walter (ed.), Wir Fernsehkinder. Eine Generation ohne Programm, Rowohlt Berlin Verlag, Berlin, pp. 81-97, here 87.)
The extract instructions for rebuilding then appeare in 1981 in an anniversary volume for Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann as "a piece o fempirical social research" (Luhmann, Niklas, 1981, Kommunikation mit Zettelkästen. Ein Erfahrungsbericht, in: Reumann, H. Beier, H.M. Keplinger, K. (ed.), Öffentliche Meinung und sozialer Wandel: Für Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen, pp. 222-228, here p. 222.) which then nevertheless provides a precise, "theory-saturated" description of how to code a sociological super-theory. The arrangement consists of "wooden boxes with forward.extendable compartments and slips of paper in octavo format" (= DIN A 5). Attention should be paid to a space-saving arrangement, in order to still be able to comfortably handle the somties very large accumulation of paper after decades of care. "Because I need space. Not for my belly, (an article in which I can do little); but for slip boxes, folders, and above all the table=library, set up in a quarter circle around me, hair short= so that I, impetuously=bent forward, can still reach it -- I have long arms !" (Schmidt, Arno, 1995, Der Platz, an dem ich schreibe, in: ders./dies., Essays und Aufsätze 2, vol. III, 4 von Bargfelder Ausgabe, Haffmans Verlag, Zürich, pp. 28-31, here 28.) another slip box theorist defends the place of the writing instrument, not coincidentally at the time when the triumphant advance of the personal computer into the living rooms of the world is beginning to take shape. Contrary to the recommendation of librarians and card theorists to always use only index cards made of cardboard or stronger paper as information carriers, Luhmann relies on plain typewriter paper for reasons of space economy, which, on the other hand, can lead to rapid wear of the data carrier if the pages are turned frequently. While in the considerations to find the suitable paper for the project, the administrative scientist Luhmann ignores the librarian dictum with space-limiting concerns, DIN 1504, which is used for "Schrifttumskarten" (DIN (=German Institute for Standardization), 1984, Publication and Documentation 2. indexing of documents, information processing, reprography, library management, standards, vol. 154 of DIN-Taschenbuch, 2nd edition, Beuth, Berlin, Köln., p. 64f.) only DIN A 6 landscape and DIN A 7 landscape are premitted in addition to the International Library Format, and hence finds no application. Similar to Hegel's (slipification-)system of 1785ff, a card note initially represents one keyword, which, however, can sometimes be strongly differentiated and expanded.
As identification, the slips bear an unique key in their upper left corner. "Hagen: They have their own key. Luhmann: Yes. Each note has a fixed number that is never changed. H: Aber das ist ein key, right? L: Yes, yes. H: Does the number have any meaning? L: No." (Hagen, Wolfgang und Niklas Luhmann, 1997, interview, WWW: http://www.radiobremen.de/rbtext/_wissen/w71002.html, last viewed on: 03/25/98, without indexing.)
My productivity is essentially to be explained from the slip box system [...] All slips of paper have a fixed number, ther is no systematic structure [...]. Behind these individual numbers there are then subdivisions, for example a, b, c, a1, a2, a3 etc., this sometimes goes up to 12 digits. I can then refer from any number to any other place in the slip box. So there is no productivity, but a spider-like system that can start anywhere. In the decision, what I put in which place in the slip box, there can be a lot of randomness, as long as I only link the other possibilities by refernce. If one does this always, an inner strucutre develops, which was never put in this way, but which one can pull out. The slip box costs me more effort than wirting a book. (Niklas Luhmann (1987): Archimedes und wir. Berlin, 142, 143)
The key starts -- not only for mnemotechnical reasons -- with a numeric value, followed by a slash, to which a further number is attched, which is then either incremented with a new entry or else "internally" branched with a new counter in the form of a small letter i.e. 43/12a or 43/13. The jey serves as a fixed address for each note, which may not be rearranged, for example, into a topic-controlled system or as in an alphabetical catalog. The procedure of simply adding each new entry at the end, of ther is no "internal" connection, is known to every librarian under the name 'numerus currens'. It unfolds its strength thanks to the simplicity of addressing notes on the basis of their alphanumeric keys. If within a new note a reference to an already recorded term arises, it is sufficient to note next to the just noted word 43/12a only the key of the note to which the reference is supposed to point. The possibility to make extensive use of references guarantees the "construction of high complexity in the slip box". (Niklas Luhmann, "Kommunikation mit Zettelkästen. Ein Erfahrungsbericht". In: Kieserling, André, Universität als Milieu, Haux, Bielefeld, 1993, pp. 53-61, here 55.) Yet, the slips of paper do not remain lined up in their chronology, i.e. 43/12, 43/13, 43/13 ..., because it is allowed to branch a term internally, i.e. the slip of the paper to the keyword "differentiation" with the key 43/76 receives a distinguishing explanation. Therefore, the note for the keyword differentiation, hierachical would not receive the label 43/77, but 43/76a, including the reference to the note for hierarchy 569/4. As an effect of this "internal branching ability" (Niklas Luhmann, "Kommunikation mit Zettelkästen. Ein Erfahrungsbericht". In: Kieserling, André, Universität als Milieu, Haux, Bielefeld, 1993, pp. 53-61, here 55f.) individual "clusters" are formed from terms that acquire central importance for the theory -- or/and vice versa.
An alphabetically arranged register serves as a search engine. It enables access on the basis of a term which the users wants to extract from the slip box. In the register the relevant slips are listed by the key, no matter whether they represent an inwards branched cluster or a single appended slip. With the help of this refister -- like the volume catalog from the library of the end of the 19th century -- the entry to a term is possible. Note that register is successively extented and the commentary in turn refers to further notes in various locations in the the slip box. Thanks to these possibilities for connections the structure of the text, which needs to be written, emerges in a preforming sequence of terms. Once caught, it is gently guided by the network of references. Through extensive browsing, slip after slip is joined together and outline the loosely stiched sheets of the later text. "This technique, so I belive, also explains why I don't think linearly at all and why I have trouble finding the right chapter sequence when writing books; actually every chapter would have to occur again in every other chapter." (Luhmann, Niklas, 1987, Archimedes und wir. Interviews. Edited by Dirk Baecker and Georg Stanitzek, Merve Verlag, Berlin, p. 145.) All that is missing in the emerging text is the gap between the selected remarks of the respective templates given by the notes. Those gaps are essantially filled by "reformulating writing" (Luhmann, Niklas, 1995, Lesen lernen, unpublished typescript, Bielefeld, p. 4.) Numerous notes serve as building blocks of the text, which have to be transferred from the admittedly pre-selected contingency into the order of a still one-dimensional text structure. The dicision, which occurs during the collective browsing, to follow another reference instead of the fist one secures the calculated coincidence a firm place in the combinatorial calculation. I.e. the selection of a perhaps offside slip provides completely differnt connection possibilities. It is thanks to this randomness that the draft text provides surprising turns which differ from the original plan. The slip box in the sytem Bielefeld 1951ff turns into a combination machine, which does not only answer the questions posed to it with a remembered reading, but at the same time provides a list of connections to tie the following argumentation to the conceptual and bibliographical fund of what has been read. Accordingly, two types of scripture cards must be distinguished: Slips that contain remarks, excerpts, and trains of thought on a term vs. slips that list bibliographic information alone. The first type, which makes up the largest part in the system Bielefeld 1951ff, consists of nothing more than a classical thesaurus without alphabetical order, which can contain not only short explanations but sometimes long collections of material for the terms entered. The poetological medium of Luhmann's systems theory is not called a quill pen or typewriter, but a paper machine in a non-simple snse. "In this respect, I work like a computer, which can also be creative in the sense that it produces new results through the combination of input data, which could not have been forseen in this way." (Luhmann, Niklas, 1987, Archimedes und wir. Interviews. Edited by Dirk Baecker and Georg Stanitzek, Merve Verlag, Berlin, p. 144.) Thus, the manual and nonetheless easily automated paper processing with the heuristic designation Bielefeld 1951ff moves remarkably close to another procedure already established in 1936: ("If I have nothing else to do, then I write the whole day; in the morning from 8:30 a.m. to noon, then I go for a short walk with my dog, then I have time again in the afternoon from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., then it's the dog's turn again. [...] Yes, and then I usually write in the evening until around 11:00 p.m. At 11:00 p.m. I usally lie in bed and read a few more things.", Luhmann, Niklas, 1987, Archimedes und wir. Interviews. Edited by Dirk Baecker and Georg Stanitzek, Merve Verlag, Berlin, my emphasis.) and the paper machine posses a write/read head. Thereby it becomes a universal machine to be completely absorbed in the data processing, office processing, and paper processing initiatied by this rupture in 1937.
Possible improvements of the Bielefeld 1951ff recording system arise almost inevitably with the steady triumphant advances of the univeral paper machine of 1937 (Turing machine) which in the meantime quarterly produces new computer generations and computer speeds. Consequently, an electronified card index allows faster access to any terms and also, in combination with logical links, to never overlook -- or forget -- strings of characters in the electronic pool. Thanks to hypertext procedures, the formerly laboriously noted references can be followed and (automatically) connected with an equally speed-optimized strategy of click and rush. And there is something else which speaks for telectification, which can only anable authorized access via the internet from all (connected) places in the world: While Hegel's box of notes in handy packing and luggage format still fits in with every journey and all seven moves up to Berlin, ("In all his wanderings he has always kept these incunabula of his education. They partly lie in folders, partly in sliding cases, to which an orenting label is stuck on the back." Rosenkranz, Karl, 1844/1969, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegels Leben, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, p. 12.), the many cubic meters of Luhmann's wooden boxes prevent unrestircted mobility and thus the ubiquitous possibility of always being able to access the reading memory. The communication partner, thanks to whose indispensable help the theory has achieved its legendary productivity, remains in its ancestral place, awaiting the requests adressed to its wood. "Fred admires this systems theorist from Bielefeld (from Biiiielefeld, I always say, raising my eyebrows)". (Klassen, Ralf, 1994, Bezaubernde Jeannie oder Liebe ist nur ein Zeitvertreib, in: Wüllenweber, Walter (ed.), Wir Fernsehkinder. Eine Generation ohne Programm, Rowohlt Berlin Verlag, Berlin, pp. 81-97, here 84.)
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