Collective memory

The third component of the stone is the DNA bonded to and resonating through the harmine. It will constitute the hyperdimensional, holographic memory of the device and will contain and explicate the genetic history of all species. It will be the collective memory of the device, and all times and places and conceivable forms will be accessible within its matrix. 

The Piraha have no written language and no collective memory going back more than two generations. They do not sleep for more than two hours at a time during the night or day. ° They frequently change their... 

The role of touching the skin in the definition of self is evident in children, and most likely remain an atavistic reflex in adult life. Holding onto oneself for physical and moral support is a natural part of child development. This is further supported by the increased frequency of self-touching in stressed situations and in apparent accordance with the effects of touch on heart rates. When moisturizers are used this may therefore be speculated to have additional unnoticed psychological aspects, which involve both a sense of security and stress coping. The use of moisturizers may therefore be deeply rooted in both individual psychologies as well as in collective memory. 

In this way, knowledge of the effect of plants on bodily functions probably became part of our collective memory. Before the advent of writing, this collective memory had to be communicated verbally and became the responsibility of certain members of the group—a practice that continued into the Middle Ages in the form of lyrical song or verse in order to make the information easier to remember. 

Figure 13. Frontispiece to Michael Maier, Examen fucorum pseudo-chymicorum (Frankfurt am Main Theodor de Bry, 1617). (By courtesy of the Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison.)...

In the case of individual structures, a reconstruction matrix can receive new information only from its individual memory matrix, but in the case of multicellular structures there is also another option. Here it is possible to build a collective memory matrix, and this allows us to choose between two different reconstruction strategies. We can continue to adopt an individual approach, where each cell gets new information only from its individual memory matrix (Figure 7.6A), but we can also adopt an approach where,/row a certain point onwards, a cell can also receive new information from the collective memory of the system (Figure 7.6B). 

In the first case, a structure is reconstructed with the same strategy from beginning to end, and we can say that the reconstruction is continuous, or one-phased. In the other case, the reconstruction is discontinuous, or two-phased, because after an initial period where the collective memory does not yet exist, comes a second phase where cells can also use the information of the newly-formed collective memory. A discontinuous reconstruction produces a greater increase of complexity than a continuous one (because the collective memory adds additional information), but needs of course a more complex... 

Figure 7.6 The reconstruction of multicellular structures can be performed by using only individual memory matrices (A), or by also exploiting a collective memory matrix (B).

These are the biological memories that we are familiar with, and if it were not for the mathematical model probably we wouldn t feel any need to look for others. According to that model, however, a multicellular system can have a collective memory , and this does raise the suspicion that a more general memory could exist. More precisely it makes us think about a supracellular memory to which all the body s apparatuses contribute, a true body memory. 

The model is dependent on the concept of supracellular memory, and it may be useful to keep in mind that the general properties of this collective memory not only correspond to real biological characters, but can also be simulated by a mathematical model. 

The definition of epigenesis as a reconstruction from incomplete information suggests that embryonic development can be simulated (in a very abstract way) by the reconstruction of a super matrix made of a growing number of individual matrices, each of which would represent a cell. In this case, however, the reconstruction could be performed with two different strategies one where the memory information is extracted only from individual memory matrices, and a second one where it is also extracted from a collective memory. 

Despite the focus here on theoretical chemistry, a genealogical approach differs from the history-of-ideas tradition in historiography in that ideas do not determine the course of scientific development but instead become one element in a spectrum of resources upon which scientists may draw. When ideas, instruments, and methods become a part of written literature, they also become a part of collective memory which could be reenacted at different historical moments. Central to this story of the Chemical Revolution are the methods or techniques—material, social, and literary—that contribute to the stabilization of a scientific tra-... 

The official story, even though it may partly shape collective memory, cannot entirely supplant the individual and collective experiences of those who actually participated in the revolutionary process. For those who have no personal recollection and who thus come to the revolution via the schoolbook or patriotic speech, however, the official story will prevail unless there is another conflicting source of information. 

Fear, however, served no great and inspiring purpose, so writers and political leaders focused instead on the crowds around the palace. Mythmakers of the nation, they wished this mystical national unity into existence. For a generation to come, German intellectuals hammered the Spirit of 1914 into the nation s collective memory until it became part of the definition of German identity. 

Roald Hoffmann was born in Poland and educated at Columbia College and Harvard University thereafter he has been at Cornell University where he is the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters. He won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1981. For his colleagues in chemistry, Hoffmann has provided the theoretical frameworks necessary for understanding the geometries and reactivity of all molecules. He also writes poetry and nonfiction at the intersection of chemistry, art, and culture. Roald Hoffmann s latest books are a poetry collection. Memory Effects (1999), Old Wine, New Flasks Reflections of Science and Jewish Tradition, with Shira Leibowitz Schmidt (1997), and The Same and Not the Same (1995). 

He was one of the great leaders of the post-war era, both in teaching and research, and the debt we owe him is immeasurable. He set up two leading international research centres, one here in Uppsala, the other in Gainesville, Florida, and steered their development for decades. Through the Summer and Winter Institutes that these centres hosted almost every year since 1957, Per-Olov influenced many generations of aspiring theoreticians, both chemists and physicists. In our collective memory he will remain immortal... 

The authors have endeavored herein to refresh the collective memory of the organic catalysis community about the usefulness of aluminum isopropoxide and related or derivative compounds, and to present limited comparative results from preliminary efficiency studies. The diversity of applications of aluminum isopropoxide and other alkoxides described herein demonstrates the continued value of this class of coirpounds to organic catalysis. We desired to stimulate new consideration of this catalytic tool among current investigators as it awaits the full exploration of its potential. Our object was to consolidate the extensive AIP and aluminum alkoxide literature for easy review by researchers to facilitate their usage of this body of knowledge. Hopefully, our efforts have served that purpose. The authors are indebted to Kerry Rickerd (Chattem Chemicals) for GC method development and analysis of the reduction experiment sanq>les. 

Abir-Am, P.G. and Elliott, C.A., Eds., Commemorative Practices in Science Historical Perspectives on the Politics of Collective Memory, University of Chicago Press for History of Science Society, Cambridge, 2000. 

The flowery name of the age was probably indigenous to the epoch itself, although it never surfaced in documents of the time, perhaps because it was just too obvious to be mentioned. It lay dormant in the collective memory for almost half a century, until it surfaced almost simultaneously in two venues -in the title of critic Sergei Makovsky s memoirs. On the Parnassus of the Silver Age (Munich, 1962), and in a line in Akhmatova s Poem without a Hero (first published in 1965) which mentions the silver moon hovering brightly over the Silver Age . ... 

Caltech Institute Archives, California Institute of Technology, The http //archives.caltech. edu/ (accessed September 21,2010). The institute archives serve as the collective memory of Caltech by preserving the papers, documents, artifacts and pictorial materials that tell the school s history, from 1891 to the present. Researchers will also find here a wealth of sources for the history of science and technology worldwide, stretching from the time of Copernicus to today (from Web page). 

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