Memory of a complex system

Memory is our faculty to remember past events. Yet where is this memory stored?  In the brain is the obvious answer. Yet there is more to it. Suppose  that you learn to ride a bicycle. Initially you have to concentrate on your movements and remember how to act. While you think of riding,  myriad unconscious processes adapt to it. Certain muscles become stronger and require more blood which is also directed to the brain regions  which  control   riding.  More blood means also a higher demand for  oxygen.  Breathing and heart rate get faster and so on.

With time you ride automatically, and your organism adapts more efficiently  since remembering how to properly operate.  We may thus distinguish between conscious memories residing in the mind (brain) and unconscious memories embodied in the entire organism (WOB).  Suppose that you stopped bicycle riding and  after  many years you decide to start again. Your mind memory remembers that you know how to ride, yet your body does not respond so well. Muscles became weak,  the heart does not pump enough blood and breathing requires an extra effort. In short  your organism forgot how to ride well and you have to train again. The distinction between mind and embodied memory is artificial, since  our entire memory is embodied.

The elastic band is a simple example of an embodied memory. After being stretched it remembers its initial state to which it returns when  stretching is released. Memory is embedded in the entire band.

While computer memory stores data, embodied memory stores actions. Which is illustrated in a  simple CA with a period of 46 states.  Each state represents a different action memory which may be triggered by injury.

Properties of a complex system memory:

1. Embodied  in the entire system
2. Stores actions
3. Recall is activated by an external trigger which may be regarded as its reading head.
4. Each state can store many memories (actions), whose  recall depends on the nature of the   trigger.
5. Memory is a process which may gradually fade away. In order to remain alive it   requires an external trigger.
6. An external event may initiate an action (reading)  or modify an action (writing)
7. Memory  is a doublet {state, trigger}.
8. An isolated system has no memory since its states cannot be read or modified. They do not meet  the doublet requirement.  An isolated system is simply a pile of bits (matter). It does not matter whether its entropy (information) is  high or low.  In its splendid isolation it will remain dumb for ever.

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