I found this [Nodeshell rescue |nodeshell], and I thought, okay, I know this one! It's from [George Orwell]'s [1984].

"In the walls of the cubicle there were three [orifice]s. To the right of the [doublethink |speakwrite], a small [pneumatic] tube for written messages, to the left, a larger one for [newspaper]s; and in the side wall, within easy reach of Winston's arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the [disposal] of waste paper. Similar slits existed in [hrair | thousand]s or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some [reason] they were nicknamed [memory hole]s. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building." -[Nineteen Eighty-Four], pgs 34-35

In Orwell's [Dystopian Literature | dystopian] novel, written in 1948, the [past] is continually re-written to match the current [propaganda | policies] of the state. Of course in 1948, a much larger percent of the information available to the public existed on paper, which is notoriously [flammable]. All inconsistencies were [incinerate |eliminated]; with no record of the past, how could people be sure anything had happened the way they remembered?

[node what you don't know |--------------------------]

It turns out since Orwell [coin]ed the term, others have taken it up. You can find memory hole on [Urban Dictionary], where it is defined as "an [alteration] or outright [disappearance] of [inconvenient] or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, or other records." I find this significant in that Orwell created a term that has made its way into [contemporary] slang, virtually unchanged.

Memory Hole is a 2021 [Quibi] series with [Will Arnett] that highlights [pop culture] [fail]s from the 80s and 90s, which may or may not be a ripoff of a 2014 [YouTube] show ALSO called [Memory Hole] which grew out of a 2007 YouTube remix of 80s and 90s [VHS] and [DVD] footage known as [Everything is Terrible].

[Memory Hole 1] is a 2004 studio album produced by [Kevin Moore]; it documents in three parts spoken-word samples from shows broadcast by [Radio for Peace International], coupled with original music by Moore.

Memory Hole is also a computer term; somebody else who understands it better is going to have to node about that.

Also of note, Memory Hole (and now Memory Hole 2) is a website run by Arizona [blog]ger [Russ Kick]. Kick has been called "an information archaeologist" by the New York Times and been named one of the "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" by [Utne Reader]. He has edited the bestselling anthologies [You Are Being Lied To] and [Everyone You Know is Wrong]. Kick posts on his website documents, photos, and footage that might otherwise not come to light. According to his website,[http://thememoryhole2.org/about | The Memory Hole 2] [mission accomplished | "achieves its mission] in several ways:

Discovering what documents the US government has pulled offline, recovering them, and reposting them here. In this way, The Memory Hole 2 is the reverse of its namesake in George Orwell's 1984, in which official documents that were no longer convenient for the powers-that-be were sent to a furnace through a hole in the wall.

Digitizing and posting important documents that previously existed only on paper.

Filing [Freedom of Information Act] (FOIA) requests for documents across the federal government (including Cabinet-level departments, regulatory agencies, intelligence agencies, and the military), then posting the results. I also sometimes file at the state and local levels, as well as with governments outside the US."

[https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/web-archivist-preserves-removed-usda-animal-welfare-reports-873867331710 | Rachel Madow video about Russ Kick and his website, the Memory Hole]