Post-It Memory
If computers are so powerful, and so good at memory, how come everybody at my office has post it notes stuck on their computers?
———- from Aida Audeh of Mount Vernon, NY
Those are there to help the computer operator remember small things, like where he put his lunch, or what his name is. Working in front of a computer all day does a pretty good job of erasing volatile memory from the pre-frontal lobes. The post it notes keep the operator living and working in this time and space, while his actual brain is drifting somewhere back at the end of the last ice age. I’ve seen notes reading Remember to go home at night, or You own a dog. The little things, that make life almost worth living.
Those are there to help the computer operator remember small things, like where he put his lunch, or what his name is. Working in front of a computer all day does a pretty good job of erasing volatile memory from the pre-frontal lobes. The post it notes keep the operator living and working in this time and space, while his actual brain is drifting somewhere back at the end of the last ice age. I’ve seen notes reading Remember to go home at night, or You own a dog. The little things, that make life almost worth living.