limits on, here
long-term, here, here, here, here
loss of, here. See also amnesia
materialism and, here
morality of, here
natural, here, here
outsourcing, here, here, here, here, here
personal, here, here
physical objects and, here
retrieval, here, here
science of, here, here
short-term, here, here, here
spatial aspect of, here, here
techniques, here, here
traumatic, here
writing and, here
memory palaces, here, here
mental maps, here
mental models, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
mental states, here
mental time travel, here, here, here, here
Mesopotamia, here, here, here, here, here
metaphysics, here, here
Milosz, Czeslaw, here, here, here, here, here
mind, faculties of the, here
mnemonics, here
Mnemosyne, here, here, here
monoculture, here
Monroe, James, here
Montaigne, Michel de, here, here, here, here, here, here
Monticello, here, here, here
moral imagination, here, here, here, here
morality, here, here, here, here, here
moral law, here
movable type, here, here, here, here
Murdoch, Iris, here, here, here
muses, here, here, here, here
museums, here, here, here
music, here, here, here
musical instruments, here
Nabokov, Vladimir, here, here
national security, here, here, here
National Security Agency (NSA), here
nation-states, here
natural history, here, here, here
natural history museums, here
natural law, here, here, here
natural memory, here, here
natural philosophy, here, here, here
Nature
alienation from, here
organization of, here, here
religion and, here
science and, here, here, here
Neanderthals, here, here
neural connections, here
neurons, here, here
new media, here, here
newspapers, here
Newton, Isaac, here, here, here
“Ninety-Five Theses” (Luther), here
novelty, here
objects. See physical objects
“Of experience” (Montaigne), here
Old Testament, here
On the Nature of Things (Lucretius), here
On the Origin of Species (Darwin), here
opinions, here
O’Reilly, Randall, here
organizations, here, here, here
organized knowledge, here, here, here
original documents, here. See also artifacts
Page, Larry, here
papacy, here
paper, here, here
papyrus, here, here
past
invention of false, here
learning from the, here, here, here
plurality of the, here
reflection on the, here
remembering of, here
view of the, here
patents, here
patterns, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
perception, here, here, here, here, here, here, here. See also temporal depth perception
perfect knowledge, here
personal data, here
personal libraries, here
personal memory, here, here, here, here, here, here
Peter the Great, here
philosophy, here
phonograph, here
physical evidence, here, here, here, here, here
physical movement, here
physical objects
management of, here
memory and, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
in museums, here
preservation of, here
physical records, of the past, here
physical sciences, here, here
physical space, here
Pitcairne, Archibald, here
Plato, here
playback equipment, dependence on, here
Poe, Edgar Allen, here
poetics, here
power
knowledge and, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
of printed word, here
prediction, here, here, here, here, here, here
preservation, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
print, here, here, here, here, here
printing press, here, here, here, here, here, here
privacy, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
problem solving, here, here, here
progress, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Protestantism, here
Protestant Reformation, here, here
Proteus, here
Ptolemy XIII, here
public libraries, here, here, here, here
public domain, here
publishing industry, here
Pushmi-pullyu, here
railroads, here
Randolph, Peyton, here
reason, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
recall, here, here, here, here
recollection, here, here, here
recording technology, here, here, here, here
record keeping, here, here
redundancy, here
Reformation, here, here
religion
marginalization of, here
science and, here
religious wars, here
Renaissance, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Republic of Letters, here
retrospection, here
revolutionaries, here, here, here
rhetoric, here
Rich, Adrienne, here
Romans, here, here, here, here, here
Rosetta Project, here
Rough Draft of Declaration of Independence, here
Russia, here. See also Soviet Union
S., story of, here, here, here, here
Schrödinger, Erwin, here
science, here, here, here, here, here
forensic, here, here
Jefferson on, here, here
of memory, here, here
predictive power of, here, here
professionalization of, here
progress through, here
religion and, here
scientific advances, here, here
scientific investigation, here
scientific knowledge, here, here, here, here
scientists, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
scripture, here, here, here, here
scrolls, here, here, here, here, here, here
search engines, here, here, here, here, here
Second Coming of Christ, here
secular learning, here
self-awareness, here
Shapin, Steven, here
Sherlock Holmes, here, here, here
Sherman, Roger, here
ships’ logs, here
short-term memory, here, here, here
silicon chips, here
Simonides of Ceos, here, here, here, here
slave labor, here, here
sleep, here
slow thinking, here
Snowden, Edward, here, here
social media, here, here
sociotechnical innovation, here
Socrates, here, here, here, here
songs, here
Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, here
sound recording, here, here, here. See also audio recordings
source amnesia, here
&
nbsp; Soviet Union, here
spatial memory, here, here, here, here
Square Kilometre Array, here
Squire, Larry, here
stories, here
Sumerians, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
symbolic thought, here, here
synecdoche, here
synesthesia, here
teaching, here
technology
digital, here, here, here, here
information, here
management of, here
Nature and, here
recording, here, here, here, here
supply and demand for new, here
writing, here
telegraphy, here, here
telephones, here
temporal depth perception, here, here, here, here
Temple of the Muses (Mouseion), here, here, here
time
deep, here, here
marking of passage of, here
mental time travel, here, here, here, here, here
passage through, here
scarcity of, here
tenses of, here, here
trials, here
Twitter, here, here
Ulam, Stanislaw, here
unconscious memories, here
United States, here, here, here, here, here, here
United States Copyright Office, here
universal library, here, here, here
universe, here, here
University of Virginia, here
U.S. BRAIN Initiative, here
U.S. Capitol, burning of, here, here
user-driven algorithms, here
Ussher, Bishop, here
value, here
The Voyage of the Beagle (Darwin), here
Wallace, Alfred Russel, here
War of 1812, here, here
Wayback Machine, here
Weinberg, Steven, here
Whewell, William, here
Wikipedia, here
Williams, William Carlos, here
wisdom, here, here
witch trials, here
Woodward, A. B., here
World Wide Web, here, here, here, here
writing
conventions, here
efficiency of, here
invention of, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
memory and, here
technology, here
X-rays, here
A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR
Abby Smith Rumsey is a historian who writes about how ideas and information technologies shape perceptions of history, of time, and of personal and cultural identity. Trained at Harvard as a Russian scholar, she has worked in Soviet-era archives, spent a decade at the Library of Congress, and has consulted on digital collecting and curation, intellectual property issues, and the economics of digital information for a variety of universities and the National Science Foundation. She lives in San Francisco.
PLATE SECTION
Truths sacred and undeniable, or merely self-evident?: The Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence, drawn up by Thomas Jefferson and corrected by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.
Paleolithic selfie: About 30,000 years ago humans stenciled their handprints with red ochre in the Chauvet Cave of southern France.
Of two minds: Pushmi-pullyu from Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle, blessed with two heads but unable to make progress or walk a straight line when they disagreed.
Reading the gods’ intentions: Seventh-century B.C. cuneiform tablet providing expert interpretation of human and animal birth defects as divine omens.
New technologies imitating old: Manuscript Giant Bible of Mainz, left, and print Gutenberg Bible, right, meant to look handmade.
The faculties of Thomas Jefferson’s mind: Catalog of Jefferson’s 6,487 books, drawn up in 1815 when he sold them to Congress. Two hundred years later, the Library of Congress has over 160 million items in all media.
Reading as enlightenment: Sainte-Geneviève Library in Paris (1838–1850). To allow natural light and discourage fires, Henri Labrouste used newfangled cast-iron for the reading room which could seat hundreds of students in search of knowledge.
Memory as meaning: Michel de Montaigne, early print native, invented the essay as a tool of self-knowledge. He continuously revised his essays as he changed over time.
Disorder of distraction: Russian psychologist A. R. Luria, whose subject S. remembered everything, lacked the “art of forgetting,” and consequently felt his life “took place in dreams, not in reality.”
A slice of time: This detail of a geological map from 1841 shows the earth shaped by dynamic, violent forces over millions of years, made vivid by hand-painting over engraving.
Making pictures of sound: Experimental physicist Carl Haber, whose work on devices to image subatomic particles is the basis for technologies that rescue sound from recording media too fragile to play.
Big Data: Corridor of the Library of Congress in 1897 during the move out of the Capitol into a magnificent new home the size of a city block. The library outgrew its new building within a decade.
What digital memory looks like: Brewster Kahle, in the Internet Archive’s stacks of machine-readable digital memory, where books, audio, and video all live on the same drive.
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First published 2016
© Abby Smith Rumsey, 2016
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ISBN: HB: 978-1-62040-802-5
ePub: 978-1-62040-803-2
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