Cultural objects and devices

A large array of objects that are created by man's intellectual and cultural activities appear in symbolic contexts. These objects include everything to do with writing (pen, pencil, ink, quill, tablet, chalk, blackboard, paper); with reading -book, letter, newspaper, lectern); with verbal or audible communication (telephone, megaphone, loudspeaker, radio, television, telegraph, rostrum); and with pictorial communication and visual fine arts (paintings, easel, palette, brush, statue). Another category of symbolic cultural objects and devices concerns mankind's numeracy. These objects include the abacus, slide rule, adding machine, calculator and computer.

Writing instruments and written or inscribed surfaces represent the record; factual history and personal deeds. Symbolic records of various types (rolls, ledgers, books) may represent the unalterable past or the forseeable future. In the latter case they can signify a mandate or mission. As a symbol of unalterability, records may appear on stone or metal and be associated with laws and constitutions. Computer records, symbolized by a profusion of paper and other outputs, signify inexhaustible detail, much of it irrelevant; or comprehensive knowledge, when they are represented in scientifically organized information flow charts.