Cognitive Science: An Introduction/Memory In Distributed Cognitive Systems

The use of external memory is surprisingly recent. It wasn't until about 3000 or 3500 BCE that the Sumerians invented a system for processing and storing information outside their brains. Early writing systems were numbers and facts, probably to keep track of commerce. Harari, Y. (2014). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. New York: Random House.