Brilliant. I see a revision here of Vannevar Bush¹s seminal article from 1945, ³As We May Think,² in which the extension of human memory was the catalyst for the invention of the personal computer. What you suggest is that human memory has a particular quality perhaps better suited to artistic invention and inspiration, since it doesn¹t overtax the system with TOO MUCH INFORMATION.
On 6/25/15, 5:54 PM, "Edward Picot" <[email protected]> wrote: >I'm with Dave - I've got stuff all over the place - some handwritten, >some in plain text files, some on old databases. At one point I started >keeping a private blog on a database, and the idea was that every entry >would have a list of keywords appended to it, so that I'd be able to >find things again; but it was too much like hard work. > >I've got a filing system for my day job, which seems to be fairly >efficient. If I want to know where the maintenance contracts are, >they're in the maintenance folder. If I want to know where health and >safety documents are, they're in the health and safety folder. Every now >and then, however, something crops up where I need to find a particular >document, and I can't remember how I've filed it, and end up doing >massive searches to locate it. > >My feeling is that a filing system doesn't actually help you to remember >things. It helps you to retrieve things, which is different. If it's >fairly well organised it actually allows you the luxury of forgetting >things. For example there are certain tasks which have to be completed >by certain dates. I put a reminder in my diary a few days in advance of >the deadline, file away the relevant documents in the filing system, and >forget all about them until the reminder jogs my memory. > >At home, in my creative work, things are less structured. I've got an >old notebook full of handwritten ideas for projects. Every now and then >I look at it and think to myself 'Yes, that's a really good idea' - I >rediscover ideas that I've forgotten all about - but I usually don't go >ahead with them. The ideas I pursue are the ones that I find myself >carrying around in my head all the time. I don't have to write them >down, because they're living with me. So in a way I kind of trust my >defective memory to select the things that are essential and let slip >the ones that aren't. It isn't much of a system, but it has the virtue >of being sort of organic. > >- Edward >_______________________________________________ >NetBehaviour mailing list >[email protected] >http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
