[-empyre-] Welcome to Mickey

[Norie Neumark]

Hi John,
morning reflections before breakfast in the antipodes
On 14/11/2007, at 8:09 PM, John Hopkins wrote:

> morning reflections/questions before breakfast...
>
> what happens when we cannot remember where we left the list of  
> things to remember?
or forget to write a list of things to remember
>
> what happens when all memory is external?  will this mean that we  
> will be living in the perfect Zen dream of be-here-now?  or that we  
> would be constantly repeating our mistakes?
given how often i repeat my mistakes... maybe it'd be a relief not to  
realise.... no memory no realisation? I can see the appeal of Zen.
>
> as for errors, is there a difference between internal embodied  
> memory errors and external disembodied memory errors?  are there  
> different consequences?  False memory could be dangerous in terms  
> of survival...
depends if we know they're errors -- the (social-technical) tendancy  
to believe the veracity of the disembodied is strong, don't you think?
>
> I don't see a difference in preserving any (material) form of  
> external memory.  it is a thermo-dynamic function.  without a more- 
> or-less constant influx of energy to maintain order, memory will  
> dissolve into its component energies and dissipate into the  
> background radiation of the universe -- ensuring that there is a  
> constant source of low-level memory of what the universe is  
> composed of.
if this isn't already the inspiration for a sci-fi novel, it should  
be. to me, it's where physics and poetry cross...
>
> Maintaining an archive requires energy.  Doing documentation  
> requires that (at least someone's) attention be focused on both  
> archive (future) and the process itself (present).  Each time the  
> Self makes a document there is at least a partial stepping-out of  
> lived experience into the abstracted world of the document.  It is  
> in this abstracted world where we are most in danger of losing  
> connection to primary experience and ultimately our embeddedness in  
> the continuum which is all.
but you can momentarily forget can't you... suspend that sense of the  
abstracted world... in the zone of play?
>
> Representation forces us to step out.  Can one live by the act of  
> representation, or ???
>
> When we step out, where do we go?
>
> Of course documentation can be a re-presentative act in itself.   
> one which places the observer at that place at that time which is  
> different than subsequent after-the-fact re-play...
>
> There would also be the quantum thought of the observer affecting  
> that which is observed, as well... something that has fundamental  
> ramifications...
>
> Norie -- could you define 'performative encounter' in more detail?  
> (vs 'straight' documenting?)
these last ones requires breakfast... more later...
best
norie
>
> Cheers,
> JOhn
>
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