More on ZOZ memories - page 1

MEMORIES ARE IDEAS, NOT HARDWARE.

We must very carefully distinguish between a ZOZ "memory" and the physical storage device that stores it, often also called a "memory". EG, "Disk memory", "RAM memory", "Flash memory". These devices store memories, but are not themselves the memories that are stored in them.

Does a disk drive weight less when it is "empty" and more when it is "full"? If we download a bunch of data into a laptop, does it become heavier? The answer is most definitely: NO! But then the question is begged, WHAT exactly did we download?

Imagine that you have 100 pennies on a table, arranged in a 10 penny x 10 penny square grid. Some of them are heads up and some tails up. Now imagine that I am at a nearby table and I too have a set of 100 pennies in a similar arrangement, but with a different pattern of heads and tails. Now imagine that you look at mine and you flip your pennies around until your set exactly matches mine.

Our pennies are physical memory storage devices. They do not weight more or less when flipped. We have just transmitted a pattern from my pennies to yours. But what has been transmitted is not a physical thing, it is a pattern, an idea, a concept.

Suppose that all the head-sides were black and all the tail-sides were white. By flipping just the right ones, I could create a picture of a cat. Or anything else I had the idea of. My picture is an idea. My pennies merely represent it. And your pennies can duplicate it and represent it too.