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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