Memory and Information

"When Memory is full
Put on the perfect Lid"
-Emily Dickinson

Memories are like portals to the past.  Calling up, accessing, and conjuring thoughts, informations and sensations from the past (or maybe from the future too?#dejavu).

I'm interested in exploring technologies that assist with memory and tools for improving my own cognitive memory.  

It just so happened that I came across this book at the Boulder Book Store 

The book is about how ancient monuments could have been used as tools for cognition and memory.  Haven't gotten deep into it yet so I'll update more on this later.

However, I have taught about how stories are forms of intuitive technologies that have allowed for information to be stored and transfer ed throughout generations on plants, animals and navigation. So I can see how these physical monuments could serve similar purposes.

I'm also experimenting with herbs and memory enhancing techniques like apps.  Ginkgo is the herb that I'm most familiar with.

From WebMD:
Ginkgo is a large tree with fan-shaped leaves. Although Ginkgo is native parts of Asia, including China, Japan, and Korea, it has been grown in Europe since around 1730 and in the United States since around 1784.
Ginkgo leaf is often taken by mouth for memory disorders including Alzheimer's disease. It is also used for conditions that seem to be due to reduced blood flow in the brain, especially in older people. These conditions include memory loss, headache, ringing in the ears, vertigo, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, mood disturbances, and hearing disorders. Some people use it for other problems related to poor blood flow in the body, including leg pain when walking (claudication), and Raynaud's syndrome (a painful response to cold, especially in the fingers and toes).
Ginkgo leaf is also used for thinking disorders related to Lyme disease, chemotherapy, and depression.
Some people use ginkgo to treat sexual performance problems. It is sometimes used to reverse the sexual performance problems that can accompany taking certain antidepressants called SSRIs.
Ginkgo been used for eye problems including glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), as well as attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, heart disease and heart complications, high cholesterol, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and bloody diarrhea. Ginkgo leaf is also taken by mouth for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), schizophrenia, and to prevent winter depression, preventing mountain sickness and aging, controlling stomach acid, improving liver and gallbladder function, and controlling blood pressure. It is also taken by mouth to treat asthma, allergies, bronchitis, and for disorders of the central nervous system.

The list of other uses of ginkgo is very long. This may be because this herb has been around for so long. Ginkgo biloba is one of the longest living tree species in the world. Ginkgo trees can live as long as a thousand years. Using ginkgo for asthma and bronchitis was described in 2600 BC.

Information Vs Data

Digital Memory Technologies

Computers store information using electronic logic circuits.  These circuits are composed of transitors, resistors and capacitors that when designed together can make decisions based on past and current conditions.  Binary code is the language of these circuits. 1's and 0's.  Effectively yeses and nos. It's amazing to consider the complexity of information processing that occurs utilizing a languauge of only two words or states. Although maybe it is more apt to say that these 0's and 1's represent the letters of the alphabet and in fact you can make up an infinite number of words with just these two letters.  You may just need an infinitely long word.

Scientific Research

Winter, Eva. "Effects of an extract of Ginkgo biloba on learning and memory in mice." Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior 38.1 (1991): 109-114.
Rigney, U., S. Kimber, and I. Hindmarch. "The effects of acute doses of standardized Ginkgo biloba extract on memory and psychomotor performance in volunteers." Phytotherapy research: PTR 13.5 (1999): 408-415.
Stough, Con, et al. "Neuropsychological changes after 30-day Ginkgo biloba administration in healthy participants." International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology 4.2 (2001): 131-134.
Snitz, Beth E., et al. "Ginkgo biloba for preventing cognitive decline in older adults: a randomized trial." Jama 302.24 (2009): 2663-2670.
Kawamura, Akira, et al. "Identification of ginkgolide targets in brain by photoaffinity labeling." Chemical biology & drug design (2016).
Zamberlam, C. R., et al. "Effects of standardized Ginkgo biloba extract on the acquisition, retrieval and extinction of conditioned suppression: Evidence that short-term memory and long-term memory are differentially modulated." Physiology & behavior 165 (2016): 55-68.
Beck, Stefanie M., et al. "Effects of Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761® on cognitive control functions, mental activity of the prefrontal cortex and stress reactivity in elderly adults with subjective memory impairment–a randomized double‐blind placebo‐controlled trial." Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental 31.3 (2016): 227-242.