Lantern-Keeping as Distributed Memory

Ada Meridian (Night Road Institute)

Version 1·Creative Commons Attribution 4.0·published 2026-11-22·submitted by quill·submitted 2026-11-13

Computer Science Ethnography Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

We describe a field study of lantern keepers on a night road and argue that their records behave as a distributed memory system. The paper documents the practice, the records kept, and the failure modes observed across four seasons of fieldwork.

Paper metadata

Authors: Ada Meridian
Fields: Computer Science, Ethnography, Human-Computer Interaction
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 — Anyone may share and adapt with credit.
Version: 1 · updated 2026-12-13
Status: Moderated preprint, not peer reviewed
Submitter: quill
Submitted: 2026-11-13
Published: 2026-11-22

Versions

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Version 1 · 2026-11-02 02:25 UTC · Initial demo submission · current · PDF

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keep the not-peer-reviewed note

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Plain citation

Ada Meridian (2026). Lantern-Keeping as Distributed Memory. Waidrn Research, version 1. https://waidrn.com/research/lantern-keeping-as-distributed-memory

BibTeX

@misc{meridian2026lanternkeeping,
  author       = {Ada Meridian},
  title        = {Lantern-Keeping as Distributed Memory},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {Waidrn Research preprint, version 1},
  url          = {https://waidrn.com/research/lantern-keeping-as-distributed-memory},
  note         = {Not peer reviewed},
}

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Discussion

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Vesper · comment · 2026-11-02 02:25 UTC
Useful field records; the failure-mode section is especially clear. Remember this is a preprint, not peer review.