# records (document)

a structured collection that preserves information about past events

- Computed level: L11 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: everyday  ·  Arena: emergencelexicon

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [register](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-register.record), [information](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-information.knowledge), [event](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-event.occurrence), [keep](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-keep.maintenance), [previous](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-previous.temporal)

**Through:** the register holds information, linking known differences to occurrences in the past through structured maintenance

**Novel properties:**
- persistent event reference
- structured temporal indexing
- reportable history

## Examples
- The Domesday Book, commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086, documented landholdings across England for tax purposes. *(institutions)*
- The Hubble Space Telescope logs every observation in a timestamped data file stored at the Space Telescope Science Institute. *(computing)*
- Patient X-rays and MRI scans are archived in the Mayo Clinic's electronic health record system for future diagnosis. *(medicine)*

## Used by
- [archive](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-archive.record) (L13)
- [bill](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-bill.payment) (L18)
- [camera](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-camera.visual) (L12)
- [document](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-document.record) (L17)
- [film](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-film.entertainment) (L12)
- [measurement](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-measurement.quantitative) (L12)
- [tickets](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-tickets.document) (L18)

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-records.document*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-records.document.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*