ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 11, 1997 TAG: 9703110080
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: CALVIN WOODWARD ASSOCIATED PRESS
Today's minds are crowded with a random swirl of digits and characters. Too crowded, for anyone who has stared blankly at a bank machine, suddenly at a loss for numbers.
Author Paul Dickson figures he leads a 76-digit life. Although he works at home, without all the codes and passwords of an office, that's what he keeps in his head to get through an average day.
He's not alone. Today's minds are crowded with a random swirl of digits and characters. Too crowded, for anyone who has stared blankly at a bank machine, suddenly at a loss for numbers.
So frozen you could hear a PIN drop.
After years of worry about conformity and facelessness, the digit revolution is upon us.
And apart from whether that is a worthwhile tradeoff for modern efficiencies and security, this much is clear: Some memories are being taxed to the max.
People juggle Personal Identification Numbers, one password to unlock the fancy car, another for home security, another for the gym locker, another to reset the radio when the car battery dies.
At work the burden grows: the computer log-on, the phone message code, the Internet passwords, different access numbers for different hallways.
On occasion, even psychologist Terry Libkuman forgets his computer log-on - and he has taught memory at Central Michigan University.
Such scholars believe the typical mind can commit only five to nine unrelated items to short-term memory. Long-term memory is vast but, like a big old warehouse, you can't always find something there when you need it.
The usual memory aids, like writing a number down, using the same one for multiple purposes or associating it with something else, are frowned on for security reasons.
New technology is not the only strain on memory. Even those little area codes are suddenly up to mischief - quick, where's 757? (Eastern Virginia.) You can't count on area codes having a one or zero in the middle anymore.
Rafts of numbers also are needed on hand if not in the mind: the 32 digits, for example, that it can take to make a call with a credit card on a phone using a different long distance carrier.
That's a long way from Pennsylvania-6-5000, to cite one storied and real phone number from the past. Or a mere 0, still available, but slow and often pricey.
``The things we have to remember are harder to remember because they're less interesting,'' says Dickson, who has written widely on cultural quirks and laments the numerical march in his latest book, ``What's in a Name?...''
Americans began being assigned numbers starting Dec. 1, 1936. That's when John D. Sweeney Jr. of New Rochelle, N.Y., became the first person to get a Social Security card.
Nine digits, almost from the cradle and right to the grave.
Rian Smith is good with numbers - and good thing. The International Finance Corp. consultant came up with 222 digits in her memory, a range of vital or obvious statistics from phone codes to shoe size.
But like many people, she does best with a keyboard in front of her or a phone in her hand, when she does not stop to think.
``My fingers know the numbers,'' she says. ``My brain does not.''
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. Paul Dickson works at home without allby CNBthe codes and passwords of an office. Even so, he figures he needs
to know 76 sets of digits to get through the day. color. Graphic:
Chart: Tips with numbers. color.