Using the Timeline

<h1>Using the Timeline</h1>

The <a class="thought-link" href="brain://uAGaxxT4Zk2PaP5oWOIHmg/Timeline">Timeline</a> in this model is somewhat complex, but should be easy to use once you get used to it.

Time is represented in layers. In addition, there is concrete time, and abstract time.

Concrete time consists of calendar dates, while abstract time is sequences of links between events.

Abstract time is simple to understand; there are brown Time and Thread links that tie related events together, skipping over all the unrelated things between.

An example would be big yellow Election arrows that tie together things separated by one election cycle.

The concrete time is layered, by decade, year, month, and day. Time always progresses downward along vertical links. Decades are linked by Decade links, Years are linked by Year links, months by Month links, and dates by Day links. In addition each date has a Month parent, and each month has a Year parent, and each year as a Decade parent.

This makes it easy to navigate through time quickly. But it is often faster to use search. The main use of the timeline is to scan through time visualizing what events occur near each other.

Here is <a class="thought-link" href="brain://WuaZ0GAq-ked5QO-Efv3JA/19970103">1997-01-03</a>:

This example shows Jerry Moran taking over Pat Roberts' seat in the House, while Pat Roberts moves on to the Senate. The red nodes represent Tenure—the period of time a person is in a particular role. Tenure has a Start and an End arrow denoting the begin and end dates for that tenure. (End is omitted for current tenure without an end date). And it will have a Tenure link to the person, and a suitable link for the role.

If a date is selected, the relevant events will be to the left, and past above, future below. The month will also appear above, allowing you to quickly see the dates within the month, or to navigate to a nearby month.

Here is the same period,with an additional level. (This view is not available in the web client.):

Here we can see that there's considerable detail around these tenures, giving historical context to <a class="thought-link" href="brain://Ub8nMKkdd0C1fWdpXeZBxA/SamBrownback">Sam Brownback</a>'s political career prior to his Ambassador appointment by Trump.

In addition, here we can see the year layer (<a class="thought-link" href="brain://wMAg71Ys1UGRV4Jw2u7mXw/1997">1997</a>), and the <a class="thought-link" href="brain://H9a4UzN_1EC2yv2uRksJJQ/1996Inauguration">1996 Inauguration</a> (a normal event linked to a particular day).

[Inaugurations are named by their election year.]

Events are normally linked to dates, but where dates are uncertain or broad, they may link to months or years instead.

The Timeline covers from <a class="thought-link" href="brain://rHFH6HLHh0CO2zR9UeyAbw/1940">1940</a> through <a class="thought-link" href="brain://nd6EP5NUQE2y-fXjLuQFzw/2029End">2029</a>. Dates that have no events are generally omitted, so Day links skip to the next date with an event.

In addition, years with no events also omit the months, so the Month links skip past these years.

However, to minimize confusion, all years are included, and all years that have included dates, have all 12 months.