This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“We are replacing books, maps, and
audiovisual recordings with computer code that is less stable than human memory
itself. Code is rapidly overwritten or
rendered obsolete by new code. Digital
data are completely dependent on machines to render them accessible to human
perception. In turn, those machines are
completely dependent on uninterrupted supplies of energy to run the server
farms that store and serve digital data.” – Abby Smith Rumsey, Chapter 1:
Memory on Display, Page 13-14
“What this means for the digital age is that data is not
knowledge, and data storage is not memory.
We use technology to accumulate facts about the natural and social
worlds. But facts are only incidental to
memory. They sometimes even get in the
way of thoughtful concentration and problem solving. It is the ability for information to be
useful both now and in the future that counts.
And it is our emotions that tell what is valuable for our survival and
well-being.” – Abby Smith Rumsey, Chapter 1: Memory on Display, Page 17
“Fundamental to today’s anxiety about the future of memory is the lurking awareness that our recording medium of choice, the silicon chip, is vulnerable to decay, accidental deletion, and overwriting. And we know there are few institutions – if any – that have the scale and capacity to keep our analog legacy of knowledge intact at the same time they scale up to acquire the digital. This is a reasonable anxiety. Without preservation, there is no access.” – Abby Smith Rumsey, Chapter 3: What The Greeks Thought: From A Counting To Aesthetics, Page 51
Is This An Overview?
Shared knowledge across generations enables adaptive
strategies to situations. The tools used
to share knowledge were capable of surviving across generations. But technology has made knowledge sharing a
short term indevoured. The code used to
render digital Information, can be overwritten or become obsolete by new
code. People are dependent on machines
to render the digital data into readable formats. The machines are dependent on uninterrupted
supplies of energy.
For information to be valuable, information needs to be
useful now and in the future. Past
experiences shape how people interact, and expect of the future. The fragility of digital data, the fragility
of past experiences stored in digital formats, puts the future at risk. Information sharing and access enable people
to hold their government accountable to the people, and educate people on the
responsibility of the governed and the representatives. Through destruction of the past information,
of history, of cultural information, enables the persecution of people. The past provides alternative ideas, that can
challenge those in power. Without
evidence of the past, corruption has no competitor. By erasing facts, those in power validate
their view of the future.
Caveats?
This book is about validating the need to preserve memory, preserve
information, and the consequences on the future without access to the
past. The references are primarily
historic, with explanations including sociology, and psychology. There are limits to information about digital
technology, other than the expressed fragility.
