Collective Memory

I am a part of a list-serve that branches from the book and movement Fostering Sustainable Behaviour. It's a really interesting list serve, and I have learned a lot from the thousands of on the server, had have helped teach what I know.

It's the concept of a collective memory, or a collective intelligence. I posted a little video something on the DNS website about it. Being in a collective, or part of a group, is incredibly beneficial. The ability to share information, and not each individual gather their own or go over the same information over and over again, is so important. Being able to build up is a huge. Not a new concept. Maybe one not actually practiced enough.

Globally, I hope this collective intelligence can help us get out of the mess we are in. We designed ourselves into this global economic mess. Or if you believe in conspiracy theories someone did. We can design ourselves out of it. We just have to do like apple told us and "Think Different."lol.

On Tuesday, a group of women from my school stat down with my chair to talk about sustainability and our school. Our new chair is Rober Ott. I may think he is the bee's knees. He wears 3 peice suits to school. Way better than old sack-dress Linda.... Anyway, he's awesomeness steams from the fact he wanted to sit down with all of us and listen to what we all had to say. He understoond that the school needs to foster sustainable design, and that students struggle to find information or access it. He's commitment to building a resource book and guide so students from year to year don't have to do the same research over again was really inspiring to hear.

The Sierra Youth Cooaliton's website and their mission is to do something similiar. It's set up as Wiki for that reason. In the last seminar I went to, they stressed how important it is to share information, and build it in a mannor that passes on the information to the next generation.

I can only start to imagine the knowledge that we have lost. I wonder one day, will people be able to acess the blog worlds, online journals, newspapers... anything? I know the information I've lost from simply having one broken laptop, or not burning a file properly. What about information lost by extreemist regimes, burning books, men with menevolent ambition, killed academics and intellectuals, or lost cultures, languages and stories of old?

I wonder what we are going to loose... I wonder what have we lost?