Kyber memory crystals, preservation, and memory
Cad Bane apprehends the Kyber memory crystal in Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The kyber memory crystal is a device known as a memory crystal which is used for storing data. One crystal was even used to store information on all infants who are Force-sensitive. Despite the fact this valuable record is guarded, [1] it is stolen by a bounty hunter named Cad Bane on behalf of Darth Sidious. Furthermore information within the crystal can only be accessed when placed in another information-storage device: a holocron, which only a force-user can open.
Reprinted from my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks WordPress blog. Originally published on Dec. 14, 2022.
It is something different from crystalline holobooks which store vast amounts of information in the Jedi Archives, or even the hand-held holocrons, ancient devices. These memory crystals are, as noted in the Wookieepedia entry for kyber memory crystal, designed so data can only be accessed if in a Jedi holocron, [2] and the two components are kept apart. Bane, as previously mentioned, exploits this by coercing Anakin to open the holocron to save the life of Ahsoka Tano, so he can access the information within, in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "Cargo of Doom". Only a few of the children on the crystal were captured and later recovered as shown in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "Children of the Force". For some reason, he never copied the list before it was recovered by the Jedi. Apart from this, in Darth Vader (2017) 10, Darth Vader is given the memory crystal of Jocasta Nu, which he destroys to "prevent the Emperor from recruiting Sith rivals", eliminating any further information about her.
More directly, while kyber memory crystals are not electronic recordkeeping or information systems. Neither are they noncurrent, inactive, ephemeral, frozen, or facilitative records. Instead, on some level, these records have significance and usefulness to "require their retention for extended periods of time", i.e. long-term value. They also have evidential value and are undoubtedly records:
information or data stored on a medium and used as an extension of human memory or to support accountability [3]
In the case of memory, these crystals are not knowledge of "things of the past" or any sort of recollection, but more in the final form, in terms of computing, i.e. "the portion of a computer used to store information." These crystals do not fulfill the other forms of memory, as they are often based on institutions, group, or organizations. [4] I do hope those crystals aren't read-only memory, i.e. data that can be "read but not changed"! There's more to the kyber memory crystals than this.
There is some speculation that they may hold memories. Beyond that, they are different from kyber crystals which power lightsabers. If the crystals that power lightsabers are "deeply rooted in Jedi tradition", does that mean the same for these memory crystals? This is never answered, but they may have some roots in tradition, as they are undoubtedly used to store information of different types.
Otherwise, there are questions in my mind about preservation. What is done to prevent "harm, injury, decay, or destruction" of these devices? What efforts are taken to limit the "gradual deterioration...from interaction...handling and use, or...composition of the media itself"? This is not answered, unfortunately. I even looked on Archive of Our Own, a collaborative fanfiction archive, and alas found no fics about this, even among the hundreds about kyber crystals.
That's all for this post. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
[1] This is as shown in Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "Holocron Heist", as noted on Wookieepedia.
[2] Bane says something different, claiming the holocron has information he needs to collect when the crystal is what actually has the information, but it appears to be an error.
[3] Other definitions of record include: "information or data created or received by an organization in the course of its activities; organizational record"; a phonodisc; "a collection of related data elements treated as a unit, such as the fields in a row in a database table; a data record"; "an entry describing a work in a catalog; a catalog record". This differs from the broader data ("facts, ideas, or discrete pieces of information, especially when in the form originally collected and unanalyzed"), information ("A collection of data, ideas, thoughts, or memories"), or material ("the substance of which something is made"; "a thing; a resource"; "an object having physical or intellectual substance").
[4] Other forms of memory include collective memory ("the information that serves to unify a group of people and provide a group identity"), institutional memory ("the information held in employees' personal recollections and experiences that provides an understanding of the history and culture of an organization, especially the stories that explain the reasons behind certain decisions or procedures"), and corporate memory ("the information in records and in individuals' personal knowledge that provide an understanding of an organization's or group's history and culture, especially the stories that explain the reasons behind certain decisions or procedures"). There's also memory workers, i.e. those who work with "recorded information, particularly when accompanied by a focus on supporting justice and equity and protecting others from harm".
