Vitruvio
International 
journal of 
Architecture 
Technology and 
Sustainability
Volume 2 Is 2

VII

EDITORIAL

MEMORY AND TECHNOLOGY

The concept of "memory" has different meanings 
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general, the memory expresses the ability of man to 
keep track of events, information, sensations, ideas, 
experiences, and recall this consciousness as soon as 
certain motivations make necessary the contribution of 
past experience.
However, in particular the history of Western culture 
teaches us that the re-enactment of the information 
and the experiences of the past have been fundamental 
to the development of knowledge and of the 
research, and hence of the "technology" that includes 
many disciplines in itself and has as main object the 
application of different technical tools for problem 
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This issue of VITRUVIO Journal offers an interesting 
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between "memory" and "technology" analyzing 
case studies that illustrate projects and research that 
highlight the different methodological paradigms for 
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compliance contemporary.
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methodological and constructive evolutions especially 
of the history of Western engineering which, since the 
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the Latin American area, referring to the two articles 
relating to projects in Colombia and Guatemala.
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history of constructive techniques that have greatly 
contributed to the progress and growth of research in 
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of sustainable technological development without, 
however, obfuscating the inheritance received from 
history but rather enhancing existing experiences and 
methodologies to meet contemporary needs.
Bernard Stiegler, French philosopher, in the book Etats 
de choc. Bêtise et savoir au XXIe siècle �������VD\V�WKDW�

any form of knowledge presupposes a techno-logical 
attitude, supported by a cognitive and, at the same 
time, critical ability capable of guiding and responding 
best to the cultural needs of the time.
Stiegler argues that any evolutionary process of a 
collective knowledge is based on a technological 
research supported by the memory of the past.
An example is the communication system that the man 
has adopted during his evolution: he moved from the 
Altamira rock paintings to the Johannes Gutenberg 
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experiments by Louis Daguerre in France, to the 
advances in digital technology in the second half of 
the twentieth century.
They are all processes in which the dialogue between 
"memory" and "technology" has helped to improve 
the knowledges thus put it at the service of community.
In contemporary language, just for technological 
advancement, we have also witnessed the change 
of the concept of "memory", a word that is used to 
indicate a hard drive of a computer where computer 
data is stored and which relies on the preservation of 
digital documents.
But this concept does not obviously cancel the original 
one, that of "memory" as a complex of memories, and 
thus the ability to guard and recall facts of the past that 
help us interpret the present to build the future.
Thanks to human memory and the inheritance of the 
past, we have come to know our experiences and the 
millenarian knowledges. Now we just have to hope that 
the best results of the most advanced technologies 
can help us in this conservation and valorization of the 
cultural heritage to transfer our present to the future.

Olimpia Niglio

https://doi.org/10.4995/vitruvio-ijats.2017.9008