Video Abstract
Staying in the context of new cognitive technologies, is it possible to imagine virtual reality-nowadays widespread in video game forms-as a potential encyclopedia of human memory and culture?
The idea of artificial memory (Artificial Memory) based on virtual environments dates back to classical culture, when the methodology of the art of memory was developed. This was a visual mnemonics system based on virtual environments (the Loci) and images (Imagines). To memorize large amounts of complex information, the individual had to construct an imaginary palace in his or her mind, in which contents were organized within rooms and associated with evocative symbols. Simonides of Ceo, a fifth-century B.C.E. author, is the father of the loci technique. In Roman civilization the method is taken up by Marcus Tullius Cicero. In the Middle Ages an example of the Art of Collective Memory is the structure of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Medieval cathedrals, dense with sculptures and frescoes, are grandiose examples of memory palaces dedicated to the representation of the biblical narrative and Christian values. They were used to communicate through images to those who could not read, that is, the majority of the population. The most spectacular example of a biblical memory palace is the Sistine Chapel. Julius Camillus authored the Renaissance Theater of Memory, 16th century. To the same period dates the Palace of Memory by Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary to China, who not only produced the first Chinese-Western dictionary, but also achieved a synthesis of European and Christian culture by reworking the visual code of ideograms with the method of the art of memory. The cultural potential of the Ciceronian mnemonic palace paradigm – summarized in the phrase “constat artificiosa memoria ex locis et imaginibus” (artificial memory consists of places and images) appears to us to be definitely overlooked. It should be noted that hundreds of cathedrals, and some of humanity’s greatest cultural achievements, such as Dante’s conception of the cosmos and the aforementioned iconographic layout of the Sistine Chapel, can be interpreted in this key.
These insights, humanistic and philosophical, can also find application in the age of virtual reality and artificial intelligence: Cicero already spoke of “artificial memory,” understood as the result of applying mnemonics to learning.
We can now rediscover and rethink loci theory in the light of immersive technologies, which offer kinaesthetic cognitive experiences that are completely different from those of alphabetic reading. This is an unexplored field of knowledge that needs foundational research, a world in which extended intelligence can expand.
Virtual applications of memory art can be effective in the field of education and culture, especially as artificial intelligence seeks new experiential and formal modes other than the book.
The image is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Work by Gualtiero and Roberto Carraro – Homo Extensus. Please quote the authors and link to the original page.
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