Ciao Alex Footnote to last ... on ancient MEMORY SYSTEMS ... the loci method ...
First off probably the best modern work on this is Frances Yates' THE ART OF MEMORY <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Memory-Frances-Yates/dp/1847922929/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509627642&sr=8-1&keywords=art+of+memory> . I like the idea of extending (smashing together?)the *method of loci* -- > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci -- and POSD. The sheep in a > landscape becomes an icon with an easy to remember but highly complex set > of extended conceptual metaphors > *Absolutely right as far as WWW stuff goes.* All the thinkers prior to the creation of the net envisaging it imagined it as an *EXTERNAL* MEMORY MACHINE. For instance Vannevar Bush <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush>: *"wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of > associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex > and there amplified"* The idea the net would be an encyclopedia with infinite cross-referencing was very insightful. As far as the ART OF LOCI goes, the ancient method of using associative VISUAL thought to remember anything goes ... ... well I think we have largely lost it (though Derren Brown & other magicians can use it still to do magic <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASl9Jg1xbPc>). The WWW substitutes it. Rather than engage your memory you engage with the Internet. In that sense the externalisation of memory to computers may indicate broad cultural changes like ... 1 - the (final??) social-psycho adaptation from ORAL cultures to WRITING cultures. Or perhaps, better, change from personal internalising cultures to public externalising cultures. (Recommend Walter J. Ong <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_J._Ong> if you interested in this theme.) 2 - an ambivalent triumph of what Karl Popper called WORLD THREE <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popper%27s_three_worlds>. Meaning the "knowledge bases" far extend beyond one human ever being able to ever grasp them. In short the accelerated accumulation of information and analysis that exists and persists "is if" it existed without US. The problem is that the Internet just as easily preserves total rubbish. The optimising rationalists of the past completely overlooked that :-) Coming back to Sheepy TW... Interesting is WHAT DOLLY KNOWS. Dolly knows & sees a lot. But there is always the problem of articulation. Mastering the means of communication and the means of relevance for hearers is not as simple as it perhaps once was. The problem with tech on the net is its quite a stubborn instrument. Whilst its easy to AUTEUR into populist SLOTS (controlled by mega-servers) its not at all easy to find flexi-tools that let you change the MODE of saying/showing. TW is VERY good at that. Probably at the limits of flex possible? Even so there is a LOT you have to learn to find its FLEX-BUTTON. Once you do it very good. However there is also the problem left (one many artists get stuck on) ... the solution, though working well, is obscure, undisseminated and no one sees it. Getting TW (Sheep & all) better noticed is something that interests me. Best wishes Josiah -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tiddlywiki/0b92b901-885d-4400-8c03-5a4c450240fd%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
