TETRA: What the box did to freight, the matrix does to data

7.5 HH
SHEET
THE FILM
SUBJECT
THE ANALOGY
REF
THE TREE
SURFACE
What this sheet is drawn on

What the box did to freight, the matrix does to data

THE FILM THE ANALOGY 1:58

From the cave wall to the matrix

SHEET 10THE WALLSCALE NTSTHE CAVE WALLPIGMENT ON STONEOCHREGO THEREONE WALL, ONE PLACETHE PANELCARVED IN CLAY AND STONEA WEDGECARRY ITONE PANEL, ONE CARTTHE SCROLLPAPYRUS, ROLLEDBY HANDCOPY ITONE SCRIBE, ONE COPYTHE PAGEPAPER, PRESSEDA COPYPRINT ITA THOUSAND COPIESTHE MATRIXNUMBERS, HELD AS THEY AREWHERE IT SITSREAD IN PLACECOMPUTE ITONE FORM, NO COPIES

ACT 1 OF 6 · DRAWING · 1:58

ACT 01, THE WALL

Every step in how people record things has moved the message further with less handling. Pigment on a cave wall could only be read by going to it. A carved panel could be carried. A scroll could be copied by a scribe. The printed page made a thousand copies of the same words in a day.

Each step changed the form and left the message alone. And each time, the machinery that existed to handle the old form fell away: the couriers, the copying halls, the scribes.

Data is at the same kind of step. TETRA holds information as one mathematical form that is stored, sent and answered from as it is, so nothing is copied into an index, a cache or a second store in order to be read. It is the printing press against the stone tablet.

[ see THE SOLUTION, ON THE TREE ]