I know it’s foolish but I want to daydream for a bit that the Web turned out differently. That at some point around Space Jam the people decided that a business being online was a deeply offensive invasion of Our space and would be boycotted, so they gave up on trying. And what was left was lots and lots of webpages like this among the personal pages and pages about nothing. And that services like search engines were provided by universities. And undergrads who attended would take their turn working for these services as a sort of community service rite of passage.
We have web rings and web rungs (more of a ladder topology) and nothing was for sale but the community would be fine with the occasional grandson selling meemaw’s knit scarfs. Oh, and Zombo Com was tolerated given its sheer breadth of utility.
I want to stay up well past my bedtime some summer night, finding some new web zone filled with a clever collection of someone’s identity they shared with the world. Maybe while a breeze gently wanders in through an open window and a train ventures forth in the distance.
Other sites with animated 3D models might be useful for visualizing the topology of knots, or something. But for actually tying the knots I find this site and its curated photos much more practically useful. The fact that it's not literally animated is a feature; it shows the key points rather than every detail.
And the photos are just clearer and better than any other resource. (If you look closely you'll see a lot of editing work has been done on them like to minimize the diff between consecutive photos.)
Only downside is that I wish it had more minor knots!
It's the purest form of human creativity! It's nothing but a strait line and humans have figured out how to twist and turn it into a million different objects and endless uses. Our entire species has propelled itself into a realm of knowledge built on the fundamental twisting of a simple lines and observing those properties.
The clothes you wear are knots. Every surgery you have ends in knots. The combined effect of knots on our technology and understanding of the world is fascinating.
Only humans can see a rope, have a picture in their heads of what it should look like and then set forth on creating it. It's just such a precious nugget of what it means to be human and have the urge to fuck around with shit.
However, name "animated" will only lead to disappointment for people finding slide shows of humans. This is basically the same kind of that a Boy Scout handbook provides.
This website was so useful for Boy Scout rank advancement.