Tobin's reference to the legal system is very useful in this matter
of accessing memory and knowledge. How they do it is related to his
solid suggestion that we need threads which we can pursue as our
interests take us.
There is another factor in all this memory stuff that I think is
being overlooked. I assume that in the "old days", before widespread
books in particular, that reputation had a lot to do with what
pathways of knowledge one followed. I think that this is returning -
and may be implied in the suggestions that "those with wisdom are
dying off or leaving."
When it was personal, we knew that the important part was knowing who
to ask. Now that it's massive and impersonal, we've forgotten that
its' still really personal. I read the books that people who's
thinking I respect recommend. I read the other books of the authors
who contributed in the first one I hit on - and continue to read them
until they fail me a few times. I listen to the comments of some and
not others.
I think that we will need to tack names onto "threads" if we are to
make this work. This does not make only the expert king. On the
contrary, it makes the personal supreme. I follow or listen to those
whom *I* like rather than those who some authority likes - or who
have gained authority by majority approval.
-- Michael McMaster Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk