16 Jan 1999 (more or less in the order in which they occurred)
memory palaceswriting --for self, as cultural memory, as communication medium
memory button on calculator
numbering adjoining parts
hiring somebody to remember for you (killing them erased the memory --Aztecs? Diebold?)
string tied on finger? rubber band? as aides memoires
quipu
writing on one's own body
Hawaiians, literacy, Bible as serial, displacement of memory specialists
Plains Indian blankets
pua --remembering complex patterns
early history of writing: transactions, inventories, lists of possessions (cuneiform, etc.)
journal-keeping
ordering: alphabetization, other sequencing, filing and recovery of the thing sought
codes, cryptography
rhyme (poetry as technology of memory: Homeric epics, Kalevala, sagas, Yugoslav ballads)
formulaic --begats, other genealogical frames (Iban, Icelandic)
strategies for remembering --exact repetition
what KINDS of things get remembered?
tally boards in navigation
maps, including Pacific Island navigation maps
list-making
ferrite core memory
electronic devices --dictaphone, thermostat hi-lo..
graphic devices --kymograph (recording the Present as it happens)
blueprints --remembering what to do
remembering and communicating patterns and spatial designs --rugs
pill packaging by days
film and photography --archiving memories
TV before and after videotape
tape recording (and wire before that)
other sound recording media --wax, shellac, vinyl; and noise reduction for recovery of 'lost' memory (reissues of recorded sound)
music, song in formula (verse, next verse, chorus...)
WWW as a new memory technology, replacing older ones. Ephemerality, transcultural significance (English as world language; translation software)
creation of iconic culture: images known everywhere
DNA as species memory (and the implications of decoding)
sensorineural memories, viz: skills developed (fingers know what to do; hierarchies of small actions built up into action patterns: initiate top level and it al happens, like basketball shooting, driving, playing music...
how the mind organizes tasks, to remember, via practise
memory prostheses in the future?
repetition, drilling (times tables, typing) somewhat out of fashion as pedagogy
contextual help, balloon help in very complex situations with lots of choices (handling overload); files, directory structures
shelf labels... and new inventory methods in grocery stores [and mfg plants --JIT] including what needs to be ordered
Gantt charts (organizing large systems)
train schedules
bearing trees, C&:GS markers (where-is memory), blazes, stakes, surveyor's tape
menus --to remind what the choices are
The Magical Number 7
home videos --including the voices of the departed. But also home movies, vernacular photography
answering machines --saving messages? replaying tapes?
all Archives have half lives
recipes
memory drugs
and so on...