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Exactly, the lack of persistent storage was accounted for by societal structures, e.g. tribe elders.
by sorokod 3y ago
Exactly, the lack of persistent storage was accounted for by societal structures, e.g. tribe elders.
- irrational 3y agoBut, could the tribal elders transmit orally how to create a silicon chip, how to build a car, how to do all the other things that create the world we live in today? What is the maximum amount of data that can be stored and transmitted orally?
- thayne 3y agoThey can pass down knowledge that eventually leads to a writing system. And indeed, in a sense, the knowledge of how to read and write is still passed down "orally". Or at least directly from teacher to student.
- the_af 2y agoThat sounds like bootstrapping. You still need the rest of the "software" of culture.
- sorokod 3y agoInteresting questions to consider, what sort of social structures would maximise the amount of data retained. What would be a the size of a "tribe", what makes an elder an elder, what sort of tribes have to cooperate to create a car. Here is another one, a single person can be though of as volatile store of information. How many people and what protocols would be needed to implement redundancy and error correction?
- skulk 3y agoSounds like you'd enjoy studying Vedic Sanskrit.