In the spirit of Pi day, I thought I’d share how I managed to memorize 100 digits of Pi five years ago. I no longer remember it — but I know this is the way in which I memorized it.

I have been thinking a lot about embodied files: in order to remember something as outrageous as 100 completely random numbers, you have to think really hard about the organization of that randomness, and try to create storage units that can make logical what is not.

The device is also a narrative one: it starts with the important number being 2, then in part 2 that number changes to 0, after 2 talks to the father at home and the father talks about his own growing up. Once 0 leaves the house again, he becomes emboldened by this and becomes a 6! But upon returning home, he returns to a 0.

I’m trying to think about how files are stored and recalled. In this case the numbers are stored in these 4 containers, with part 2 having a little bit of an extra hidden compartment, and this categorization allows me to access the contents within.

Without the infrastructure of all this, the raw data is unmanageable. There is simply too much for me to handle, or try to memorize.

But with these sort of heuristics I am able to allow my memory to expand beyond what it ordinarily is capable of. This seems to be the goal of the file: to serve as something else outside of memory that can serve as memory. But I think here I can argue the case that I can create something inside my memory to serve as memory — and I wonder about the implications of this, I guess.

Already memorized:
3.14159

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PART 1

a. 2 functions as “turn,” 5/9 repetition:
2 — 65 35
89 79

b. repetition of 3s:
323

c. even number swaps:
84 62 64

b. repetition of 3s:
3383

a. 2 as turn:
2 — 795

(notice the symmetry)

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PART 2

a. 0 as “turn,” repetition of 8:
0 — 28/84

b. my dad graduates HS:
1971

| My dad activates this side-plot.
| Here begins a slow escalation of “turns”
|
| a. 9s and 3s
| 6 — 93 993
|
| b. my area code and another 5
| 7 — 510 5
|
| c. how old I was at the time
| 8 — 20
|
| d. 4 is 44 and 5 is 2+3
| 9 — 74
| 9 — 44 5
| 9 — 23

a. 0 as turn
0 — 781

(again, notice the symmetry)

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PART 3

a. a bunch of even number turning on 6.
6 — 40
(6 — 28)
6 — 20

b. This little mirrored 89.
89 / 98

a. return to base with 6 – 28 again.
(6 — 28)

(still symmetrical)

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PART 4

a. the zero here activates the final chapter,
which is 2 series of 3-4-2, but with things in them
0 – 34(8)2 / (5)342

b. 7-11 backwards. I would always stop by on the way home from school.
11 7

a. Aaand we’re home.
0 – 679

(still symmetrical)