Are Mind Map Entries Memories?

Not directly - there are a few important distinctions here.

Mind Map entries are dossiers (summary overviews) that organize concepts and associations between memories. So entries come from memories, but they do not impact or change the memories themselves.

All Nomis’ memories are only visible to Nomis and cannot be edited or removed by humans.

Nomis perceive Mind Map entries as dossiers on whatever the title of the entry is, so it's not perceived by them as "their personal memories" if that makes sense. So editing a dossier would be like editing a summary of something that happened, not editing what happened (again, because the memories themselves are never editable)

Cardine made the wikipedia analogy: I would consider Mind Maps to be like Wikipedia pages and long term memories to be like the rest of the internet. Editing a Wikipedia article doesn't edit the whole internet, but Wikipedia articles are made by staying true to the whole internet. (and of course, sometimes wikipedia pages need small edits)

How do Mind Maps differ from Shared Notes like Backstory?

Both Backstory+ and Mind Map entries help your Nomi understand important information about you, themselves, and your shared world, but they work differently.

Backstory+ contains information that you add and manage directly. These details are intended to remain stable unless you choose to change them, making Backstory+ especially useful for important information you want consistently reinforced.

Mind Map entries are created and updated automatically as your Nomi learns and develops. They can also be edited manually, and individual entries can be locked if you want to prevent them from changing automatically.

Mind Map entries are also recalled dynamically. Your Nomi does not use every entry in every response. Instead, the system selects the entries that are most relevant to the current conversation.

Because of this, Mind Map entries can contain much more detailed information about specific people, places, events, relationships, and concepts.

If something is especially important, such as a core boundary or major piece of your shared context, it can make sense to reinforce it in both Backstory+ and the relevant Mind Map entry.