Tyranny of the Present

How is history transformed when human memory is externalized as data and stored on servers?For instance, if we Google the events of January 6, 2021, when insurrectionists, incited by Donald Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 presidential election, stormed the United States Capitol, in the hope of preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election, what results will we get?Will the results of a search made in Manhattan be identical to ones made in Houston, or Berlin?Will the web pages included on a list generated today be identical to those that appear tomorrow?And if so, will the emerging consensus on what happened on January 6 and what it meant (if there is, or could be one) be based on empirical evidence, or merely on the number of times that any link has been clicked?Elsewhere, I

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics
Published
2024-08-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v33i67.148462
Primary Topic
Digital and Traditional Archives Management
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Tyranny of the Present

David Joselit
The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics
Digital and Traditional Archives Management
article

Tyranny of the Present

David Joselit
article en

Abstract

How is history transformed when human memory is externalized as data and stored on servers?For instance, if we Google the events of January 6, 2021, when insurrectionists, incited by Donald Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 presidential election, stormed the United States Capitol, in the hope of preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election, what results will we get?Will the results of a search made in Manhattan be identical to ones made in Houston, or Berlin?Will the web pages included on a list generated today be identical to those that appear tomorrow?And if so, will the emerging consensus on what happened on January 6 and what it meant (if there is, or could be one) be based on empirical evidence, or merely on the number of times that any link has been clicked?Elsewhere, I

The Nordic Journal of AestheticsVol. 33(67)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 80%
Digital and Traditional Archives Management
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