Photographs Prove and Forget
I have often wondered why so many people take so many photographs and digital images. It’s as if they’re obsessed with the recording and the creation of false memory.
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Memory Runoff Review
To live is to remember; and how we choose to consecrate our memories is what gives texture and context to our lives as the Panopticon becomes public. Google is good at creating the instant now for future recall, but The Wayback Machine is the granddaddy of soliciting who used to be. Today we have — Memento — a new contender for scrapbooking our online lives. So who is the king of our remembering? Wayback or Memento?
Donated in Memory Of
I love using Google Alerts to track my life online. How many David Boles folk are out there in the world? Who is stealing my stuff? Sometimes, though, an alert brings good news that touches the heart and when I read this Google News alert on my iPhone, I was stopped:
What Have We Recovered?
Learning is about recovering. We are flooded with information and we struggled to analyze the important bits and store them in memory. Then, when the most precious moment arrives, we recover those precocious stored bits to save us from ourselves. On
the awful anniversary of 9/11, we now must begin to ask — “What have
we recovered?” — in the steaming, soulless pit that used to be the
World Trade Center.
Covering the Austrian Panopticonic Eye
In London, two Austrians were detained because they were taking digital images of buses. The police invoked “fighting terrorism” as the reason they required the deletion of the images from the tourists’ camera.
The Ethics of Adderall on the Average Mind
If a drug exists that creates enhanced cognitive thinking — are we required as a society of the shared common good — required to provide equal access to that medication without a prescription?
Continue reading → The Ethics of Adderall on the Average Mind
Remembrance
As the holiday of Passover comes to a close, we prepare ourselves for the service of Yizkor, the four times a year service that is held to remember our departed loved ones. I am reminded of my late grandmothers, but at the same time I am reminded of those that are still living.
Giacomo Brunelli Eyes Animals
Giacomo Brunelli is a great photographer and he set out to capture the spirit and essence of everyday animals in a new book.
Digging the Digital Hole
Are we in danger of losing our digital memories?
Too many of us suffer from a condition that is going to leave our grandchildren bereft. I call it personal digital disorder. Think of those thousands of digital photographs that lie hidden on our computers. Few store them, so those who come after us will not be able to look at them. It’s tragic.
As chief executive of the British Library, it’s my job to ensure that this does not extend to our national memory. At the exact moment Barack Obama was inaugurated, all traces of President Bush vanished from the White House website, replaced by images of and speeches by his successor. Attached to the website had been a booklet entitled 100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration – they may never know them now. When the website changed, the link was broken and the booklet became unavailable.
The 2000 Sydney Olympics was the first truly online games with more 150 websites, but these sites disappeared overnight at the end of the games and the only record is held by the National Library of Australia.
Fast Food Forgetfulness and the Poverty of Memory Loss
Eat a Big Mac. Lose your mind. Is there a link between eating fast food and Alzheimer’s? Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, believes she has found the cause-and-effect for that behavioral disease.
Continue reading → Fast Food Forgetfulness and the Poverty of Memory Loss
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