STORAGE

chapter 4. GREAT HOLDINGS #4

This is a sequel to:

GRABBING THE MOON

THE IMAGE of two trigrams: below Heaven, above Fire. The sun is high in the sky. The dry warmth of late summer, the harvest is brought in. What is the net of a life of experimentation and experience? What is the payoff and how can it be passed on to the next generation? A human life condenses into a single story. From years of research and trial and error, only the essentials remain in memory. Miscounts and mistakes pave new paths.

A cumulative culture could emerge through imitation of the other and storytelling. Stories allowed themselves to be baked as clay tablets, written out on scrolls or books, soon a library full. What is written endures. A dense fabric grew between the old and the new dreams, between those of the past and those of an imminent future. Between a clay tablet and a data centre lie only five thousand years.