A "
memory hole" is the deliberate changing of historical or other information that is not convenient for someone. The idea became popular by the George Orwell novel
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) where the technique is used by the "
Ministry of Truth". The idea was present in an earlier novel
Animal Farm (1945).
A similar idea in the books is that of "
doublethink". One often sees this idea in action in terms of "
fact checking" whereby the "
facts" checked may or may not exist in reality.
In computing this idea is sometimes called the "
bit bucket" where "
bits" of information disappear.
Amazon does this by erasing purchased books from the
Kindle when they decide the content is not suitable.
The web site called the "
Memory Hole" attempts to preserve information that might otherwise be lost.
[Star Wars librarian]