Memory

Memory is such a fragile thing. Unless there is something tangible to record events in the past – photographs, documents, books – we rely on memory. The old Chinese saying “the faintest ink is greater than the clearest memory” is right on the money. In a world so concerned with backups, it’s a wonder that people tend to rely on their memory far more than they should. This becomes a problem when an important even occurs, and no record of the proceedings is kept. When something needs to be recalled about that event, various participants in the proceedings have different recollections of the event. The more details you try to gather, the less coherence there tends to be among the participants.

In a world where technology is making it so easy to record information, how long before we each get a permanent record of every minute of our lives? Every conversation, every event, every transaction recorded indelibly and accurately. We’ll no longer have trouble remembering things – we won’t need to. We’ll just consult The Record when we need something recalled.

Of course, it’ll then be impossible to forget anything, even when we want to.