The test of time

UNESCO Courier, June, 1997 by Louise Merzeau

An idea must stand the test of time before it can be transmitted through space. In other words, it must be proof against oblivion, falsity and falsification, and at the same time remain alive, fertile and receptive to change. An idea can only do this if it is fixed, first of all in the memory, then in a material substance. This paradox is more apparent than real: fixity is a precondition and guarantee of the movement of thought. But if memory is the prime vector for the transmission of ideas, it is only when ideas are externalized by inscription in a medium or "carrier" that their lives are prolonged beyond the limits of a single human life. As a result of this process messages are detached from the human body which they outlive by being themselves "embodied" in a device that memorizes and diffuses them.

* Traces and imprints

From the flintstone to the computer, the tools that have been used to process these media are witnesses to this future-oriented process: each technical aid is a step towards the victory of the mind over the ephemerality of human life, a first step towards someone else - a person who may be located in another place or another time.

The materials on which the inscription is made are also repositories of this active memory, places where the processing operations leave their signature. Everything made by human hand is a palimpsest. When the copyist monk of medieval Europe scratched out what had been written on a sheet of parchment so that he could use it again, he left as many traces as he erased. The original text either became an illegible mess or disappeared entirely, and then another text was written on the same surface. Across the ages these scratchings-out tell the story of a technique of writing (complete with calligraphy, desk, pen, pen-knife, and ruler), a method of production and an economic system (parchment was made from animal skins which had to be limed, cleaned, dried, chalked and then scraped, costing more than the hours of work in the scriptory), and of a method of dissemination which was itself based on a certain form of knowledge (a single, inexhaustible and sacred message constantly referred to by writers and readers belonging to a small circle of clerks).

Intangible though it may seem, a computer file is not exempt from this trace-making process without which it is impossible for an idea to endure and travel. It is true that the electronic text can be modified at will and that by losing its definitive character it also loses the variants and rough drafts that show the successive stages of its composition. But the computer memory contains far more information than that which appears on the screen. With each operation - writing, copying, saving or erasing - the program records the instruction, the code and the tag in a series of figures comprising 0 and 1. While these digits may be indecipherable as such, they are nevertheless infallible witnesses to the intellectual operations involved in producing a piece of writing or an image or doing a calculation. By returning to these instructions the program can reconstitute, transmit and modify these data on another machine at a later time.

* Travelling light

The evolution of techniques of inscription, storage and recording shows how the quest for greater precision has gone hand in hand with a quest for greater mobility. The purpose of recording a message is not only to make it unchangeable but also to make sure that it can move freely in space and time, when its medium can be easily handled, transported or duplicated. From the clay or metal tablet of the Sumerian era to the wax-smeared wooden polyptych of ancient Rome, from the several-metre-long volumen to the bound leaves of the codex (2nd-4th centuries), from the paperback to the diskette and the electronic diary, the written word has been packaged in increasingly handy as well as more reliable forms.

A thirteenth-century European student who sought access to a piece of writing recommended to him by his tutors was obliged to borrow an exemplar or master copy from a stationer and make a copy of it. His twentieth-century counterpart borrows a printed book from the library and makes a photocopy, or downloads a digital version of it from the network. In both cases, the ideas circulate after being recorded in a medium, but in the latter case the risk of the wording being altered in the course of transmission is much smaller than in the former. What applies to texts applies even more strongly to the diffusion of images. One need only think of the difficulties of copying a geographical map or an assembly diagram, to realize how far inscription techniques - engraving, printing or digitization-affect the propagation of knowledge.

Just as processes have become more reliable, carriers have become more streamlined, miniaturized and technically complex. Speed and mobility go hand in hand with capacity to record and store information. Today, thanks to progress in electronics, information can travel in real time and data circulate in billions along optic fibres.