Organization of memory

Engaging with Globality through Cognitive Crowns (Part #7)

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The possibilities above all suggest implications for the organization of memory, whether individual or collective. Whilst shorter-term collective memory is seemingly increasingly well served by internet facilities, it is not clear to what extent this is responding to the needs of longer-term memory (Societal Learning and the Erosion of Collective Memory: a critique of the Club of Rome Report: No Limits to Learning, 1980; Engaging Macrohistory through the Present Moment, 2004).

Sets of insights: In Dimension 2, the role of circlets of beads was noted as a traditional mnemotechnical device. Here in Dimension 3 the theme has been the possibility of reinforcing such a cycle of memories through interlocking several of them. Arguably some traditional sets of stories might be understood, and remembered, in this way (eg Jataka Tales, Panchatantra, Aesops's Fables, Nasreddin's tales). Kinship networks, with their generational intersections, may well be remembered by such means. More generally the challenge is how sets of potentially vital insights are rendered comprehensible and memorable as an integrated whole (Patterns of Conceptual Integration, 1984).

Technology: The question is whether new technology can reinforce memory capacity to a greater degree through enabling more complex approaches to memory architecture. Here the argument would be that what has been externalized in the past as "memory palaces" or "memory gardens" might be internalized through the multi-media reinforcement of intersecting memory pathways. Furthermore, with respect to the architecture of such "palaces", it is possible that the application of modern architectural solutions to traditional challenges of balancing stresses and loads might, by analogy, enable larger and more memory-efficient structures.

Such possibilities are to be contrasted with governance as it emerges in hemicycle debating chambers -- a semicircular, or horseshoe-shaped, debating chamber where delegates sit, the circular shape being designed to encourage consensus rather than confrontation, This organization fails to address the issue of how essential disagreement is to be appropriately integrated to enrich the outcome, despite the possibilities of any complementary virtual organization. The implications of circular organization were discussed in Dimension 2.

Polyhedra: Possibilities with great potential in this respect are those based on polyhedra, now that there is sophisticated software to manipulate them and associate text with them (Polyhedral Pattern Language: software facilitation of emergence, representation and transformation of psycho-social organization, 2008). The computer application Stella: Polyhedron Navigator offers numerous interactive possibilities. The challenge now is to explore means of rendering such structures psychoactive (Topology of Valuing: psychodynamics of collective engagement with polyhedral value configurations, 2008). Of closely related interest are the spherical tensional integrity (tensegrity) structures that are based on polyhedral forms -- especially in terms of their use of complementary compression and tension elements that could prove vital to ensuring the coherence of global memory structures of considerable scope (Implementing Principles by Balancing Configurations of Functions: a tensegrity organization approach, 1979).

Geodesic oranization: Such possibilities suggest a form of "geodesic memory organization" as the larger form which individual memory might take supported by technology (Transforming Static Websites into Mobile "Wizdomes": enabling change through intertwining dynamic and configurative metaphors, 2007). This would be consistent with the unexplored implication of the subtitle of the exploration of such forms by R. Buckminster Fuller (Synergetics: explorations in the geometry of thinking, 1975/1979). There may be insights to be obtained from the polyhedral organization of computer memory. This continues to be explored as a means of increasing computational efficiency. A geodesic grid, for example, has particular advantages when it comes to the decomposition of the computational tasks for modern, highly parallel computer systems -- notably as required for the complexities of global climate modelling (K. McGuffie and Ann Henderson-Sellers, A Climate Modelling Primer, 2005).

There is of course the ironic possibility -- with an aging population, challenged by increasingly severe problems of memory -- that mnemotechnical innovations of this nature may become ever more essential. Such "cognitive crowns" may be as important to an individual in retaining a sense of coherence and "globality" as to those specially selected for "coronation".

Given the plethora of wise sayings and insights, more fundamentally there is the issue of how collective wisdom is to be wisely organized for the benefit of global governance. Indeed, when will global governance gatherings be recognizable as giving form to cognitive "crowns" -- configuring "jewels of insight" such as to bring into focus more integrative modes of understanding?

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