“Thoughtful and educated people in the Valley recognised the incalculable treasured put at their disposal by the City of Mind; but they were not disposed to regard human existence either as information or as communication, nor intelligent mortality as a means to the ends of immortal intelligence.

…

“The city keeps. It keeps the dead. When we need what’s dead, we go to the Memory.”

-Ursula K. Le Guin, Always Coming Home