memory

An observer's construct to describe a system that appears to be history determined as a state determined system. It is based on the well grounded contention that past events can influence future events only if physical traces of them are somehow preserved within that system, and that history determined systems are merely incompletely observed, the forms of preservation being largely unknown. In models of history determined systems, memory may be thought of as a specialized device for carrying records or accounts of the past into the present so that a system's behavior is described as a function of both, the current state of the observed system and the current state of the memory. The human brain is often assigned the purpose of retaining past experiences although it does much more than that. In society, libraries tend to be attributed similar memory functions although most traditions and customs are retained elsewhere. The construct of a memory has found its most concrete application in the design of computers. (Krippendorff )