# What is a memory palace anyway? \[POLL\] **URL:** \ **Category:** General Memory Chat\ **Tags:** method-of-loci, examples, polls\ **Created:** [October 16, 2021, 2:57am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/what-is-a-memory-palace-anyway-poll/67955 "2021-10-16T02:57:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 13
**Author:** ![bjoern.gumboldt](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/bjoern.gumboldt/32/16747_2.png) [@bjoern.gumboldt](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/bjoern.gumboldt)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 10:47am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/what-is-a-memory-palace-anyway-poll/67955/13 "2021-10-17T10:47:17Z")
> [@thinkaboutthebible](#): > > And wax tablets weren’t that permanent, right? The stylus did have an “eraser” end. Not sure that you mean by “eraser”… it’s wax… you scratch your notes into it. Your so-called eraser would have to put wax back for that to work. What you’d do to reuse the tablet, was to heat it up a little to flatten the wax out again. Is that maybe what you mean? A little “scraper” that allows you to smooth out the tablet’s wax surface when warmed up? In terms of “how permanent”… let’s say you shouldn’t leave it out in the sun over lunch break, that’s for sure. Similarly, you shouldn’t leave your ink-on-paper out in the rain either. Anyways, it’s a different thing compared to an eraser. Think ice cube molds if we were living in sub-zero environments. You’d scrape the information into the ice and once done, you’d heat it up until it melts and then re-freeze it do get a nice and even surface again. > [@thinkaboutthebible](#): > > Isn’t it odd that Fanta and fountain are the same number? Was that on purpose? I might have chosen to add an elaboration to the Fanta fountain of a waterfall (148) to keep the imagery simpler though. I didn’t even notice that about **F** a **nt** a and **f** ou **nt** ain, you’re right. Well, I don’t pick my images based on where I am, it’s just one fixed image for 821, so I don’t read numbers into other words. Even if I did, I wouldn’t choose the **image** to be the same as the **locus** ; how would you know if you not just forgot the image that went with the locus if they’re both the same? I’m not sure I understand why you’d want to go for “simpler imagery” with the waterfall either. Does it make more sense logically, for sure… but why would you want that. It’s just gonna make you wonder if another property about the object that is your locus is somehow part of your image. If I didn’t have set images already and would make them up based on location, I’d probably choose **fondue** and **dwarf** … probably have some generic (so that I know it’s not important for the image) giant dip a few dwarfs in the cheese fondue fountain… actually, make that chocolate fondue because there the fountain is more common… makes for better tasting dwarfs as well. …and now imagine you tell someone about your fountain / waterfall that is very logical and nothing out of the ordinary and I tell someone about the dwarf fondue… who of the two is more likely to remember what we talked about tomorrow at that location? I.e., which image is more memorable… > [@thinkaboutthebible](#): > > And I spent most of today looking up first **term** usage on palace and pegs. Do you mean “first **time** usage?” Or something like the _first term_ as in _primary usage_ of the word… like how **cold** could refer to _temperature_ or you _being sick_? Assuming it’s a typo: > Middle English **palace** : from Old French _paleis_ , from Latin _Palatium_ , the name of the Palatine hill in Rome, where the house of the emperor was situated. _(Oxford’s English dictionaries)_ More specifically, Emperor Augustus, so it (i.e., “palatium”) wasn’t a thing yet while Cicero was still alive, who died shortly after Julius Cesar (who in turn preceded Augustus) was assassinated in 44 BC. So clearly, Cicero never used the term “Memory Palace” seeing how the word _palace_ didn’t exist yet. Also, much like people in Hong Kong don’t call the wonton soup you can get there Chinese food; being a Roman, he’d have hardly called it “Roman Room” either. > [@thinkaboutthebible](#): > > Backgrounds are just the backdrop or scenery I use for adding my memory images to each locus I find or put there. I think the impressionable wax tablet or erasable whiteboard are both just metaphors for our artificial memory to inscribe with mnemonic imagery. That first sentence sounds a bit odd… I thought the Latin _locus_ is supposed to mean _background_ in English? Generally, Greek _topos_ and Latin _locus_ are translated as _place_ or _location_. The Latin _scaena_ would more accurately describe something like _ **background** _ or _scenery_ in a theater stage kind of way; and there is a reason that it’s **locus** instead of **scaena**. --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/what-is-a-memory-palace-anyway-poll/67955)._