I realize that as a hypertext enthusiast and writer I look for these things in other areas of life, but I don’t think that it can be denied that the past produces the present and so some form of primitive thinking in traditional text does form the basis of thought that allowed hypertext to burst forth once Al Gore took the initiative in creating the internet.
Kundera:
But if we betray B., for whom we betrayed A., it does not necessarily follow that we have placated A. The life of a divorcee-painter did not in the least resemble the life of the parents she had betrayed. The first betrayal is irreparable. It calls forth a chain reaction of further betrayals, each of which takes us farther and farther away from the point of our original betrayal. (p. 92)
But in hypertext, we can form loops that return us to these points of betrayal–or change, choice, etc.–and from that point, decide upon a new tactic to choose another unknown path, still significantly different from the original choice.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology