Memory Practices in the Sciences: Difference between revisions
(Created page with "from chapter 4: The Mnemonic Deep ... More deeply, they resolve into theoretical questions of just what d inow about the past, and how do we know it.We do not want a world wittt1 perfect memory: * ''Perfect memory has a high overhead'': It would be nice if we could preserve all external murals in Italy, but this militates against our action in the present (we can't paint our current houses). * ''Perfect menory is not what it seems'': The Ise Shrine in Japan has been t...") |
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* ''Perfect memory has a high overhead'': It would be nice if we could preserve all external murals in Italy, but this militates against our action in the present (we can't paint our current houses). | * ''Perfect memory has a high overhead'': It would be nice if we could preserve all external murals in Italy, but this militates against our action in the present (we can't paint our current houses). | ||
* ''Perfect | * ''Perfect memory is not what it seems'': The Ise Shrine in Japan has been torn | ||
and rebuilt every twenty years since AD 652 using the same tools and skill | and rebuilt every twenty years since AD 652 using the same tools and skill set; it is recognized as the oldest temple in the country. What is being preserved here is not the ''ding an sich'' (which creates a legacy of preservation techniques) but the mode of building (which creates a legacy of organizational forms). The overhead problem of course recurs at this level. | ||
it is recognized as the oldest temple in the country. What is being | |||
here is not the ding an sich(which creates a legacy of preservation | |||
but the mode of building(which creates a legacy of organizational forms). | |||
overhead problem of course recurs at this level. | |||
* ''Perfect menory does not matter if no one listening to your stories'': The "archival literature" in science is written as if someone someday will have time to go back and read all this welter of material and make sense of it - assigning priority, determining value,and so forth. This is the secular version of the Last | * ''Perfect menory does not matter if no one listening to your stories'': The "archival literature" in science is written as if someone someday will have time to go back and read all this welter of material and make sense of it - assigning priority, determining value, and so forth. This is the secular version of the Last Judgment - and is equally dependent on an Entity capable of massive datata | ||
Judgment - and is equally dependent on an Entity capable of massive datata | |||
storage and analysis. There is no evidence that this Entity is in the process | storage and analysis. There is no evidence that this Entity is in the process | ||
formation. | formation. | ||
Revision as of 16:19, 16 September 2023
from chapter 4: The Mnemonic Deep
... More deeply, they resolve into theoretical questions of just what d inow about the past, and how do we know it.We do not want a world wittt1 perfect memory:
- Perfect memory has a high overhead: It would be nice if we could preserve all external murals in Italy, but this militates against our action in the present (we can't paint our current houses).
- Perfect memory is not what it seems: The Ise Shrine in Japan has been torn
and rebuilt every twenty years since AD 652 using the same tools and skill set; it is recognized as the oldest temple in the country. What is being preserved here is not the ding an sich (which creates a legacy of preservation techniques) but the mode of building (which creates a legacy of organizational forms). The overhead problem of course recurs at this level.
- Perfect menory does not matter if no one listening to your stories: The "archival literature" in science is written as if someone someday will have time to go back and read all this welter of material and make sense of it - assigning priority, determining value, and so forth. This is the secular version of the Last Judgment - and is equally dependent on an Entity capable of massive datata
storage and analysis. There is no evidence that this Entity is in the process formation.