Memory
Print “created” normal modernity by two means.
First, it created a new “soil” for elite governance, shifting political power from land and artisanal crafts based on oral culture to scalable knowledge-based behaviors that required print culture to exist and persist.
Second, it introduced what Eisenstein calls “fixity” (or “hardness” in our emerging l
... See morethe opening of Frances Yates’ classic work The Art of Memory, which begins with the central folk tale of the Hellenic art of memory: The poet Simonides attended a banquet where he was called outside just before the roof collapsed. When asked to identify the guests under the rubble, Simonides realized he could recall exactly where each person
... See moreIn the Sunday Liturgy, Orthodox Churches that follow Slavic practice, sing, “Remember us, O Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom.” There is within that prayer the subtle suggestion that such memory is the only one that matters.
And They Disappeared – Extreme Humility Fr. Stephen 4.3.2025
The Articulation of Memory
Unlike the cosmopolis of gunpowder, or the cosmopolis of sail (which emerged in the same period), the cosmopolis of print was based on a powerful memory technology. As such, it subsumed the others, and overrode their logics where they were in conflict.
In scribal culture, it is doubtful whether the pen was trulymightier t... See more
Unlike the cosmopolis of gunpowder, or the cosmopolis of sail (which emerged in the same period), the cosmopolis of print was based on a powerful memory technology. As such, it subsumed the others, and overrode their logics where they were in conflict.
In scribal culture, it is doubtful whether the pen was trulymightier t... See more
Welcome to the Cosmopolis
Welcome to the Cosmopolis Venkatesh Rao 8.12.2025
The answers to the biggest questions we have about identity, story, and God can only be answered in relation to memory. Without memory, we are forced to rely solely on ideas and suggestions to make sense of who we are, as opposed to the concrete.
Cole Arthur Riley • This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us
In our Orthodox prayers for the departed, we pray, “Make their memory to be eternal.” It is a prayer that asks God to do what He has already promised to do (which is typical of most prayers). ... God not only remembers us (described in such a graphic manner), but remembers us in our suffering. Those same wounds do not disappear in the resurrected C... See more
Capacities
I’m only beginning to dimly grasp the contours of this unfolding transformation, but some axioms for my personal philosophy of it are already clear.
Text and static images, “objectively” manipulated using chat-like tools, are relatively weak entry drugs for creating strong hive minds; much more potent stuff is coming
“Intelligence” as such does not... See more
Text and static images, “objectively” manipulated using chat-like tools, are relatively weak entry drugs for creating strong hive minds; much more potent stuff is coming
“Intelligence” as such does not... See more
Capacities
Philosopher Bernard Stiegler distinguishes technology in its broadest sense as what makes us human, and he considers technical memory as that which “enables the transmission of the individual experience of people from generation to generation.” … Producing technology produces memory.
A Very Short Introduction to Memory and Technology Kei Kreutl
... See moreAs Marshall McLuhan once observed, “Every extension is also an amputation.” The wheel extends the foot, and in doing so, removes the necessity of walking. The book extends memory, and in doing so, weakens the habit of remembering. With AI, what is extended is the head — the seat of thought, language, judgment, and becoming. And what is amputated is
... See more