Forgive and Forget

For the human con­di­tion, for­get­ting is at least as important as remem­bering — some­times more so. Without it, we are all bound to lead the miser­able life of A. R. Luria’s patient Solomon Shereshevsky, who was crippled by his bound­less, indelible memory, or his fic­tional coun­ter­part, Jorge Luis Borges’s Funes. No for­get­ting implies no gen­er­al­isa­tion, no real present time, no ameli­or­a­tion of trauma, and no weaving of mean­ingful life narratives.

More on the nature of memory in the digital era with a review of two books. Total Recall is a utopian view of a not-​​too-​​future world where nothing is for­gotten, thus ful­filling a desire for eternal life, according to the reviewer.

Delete (the subject of the quo­ta­tion) suggests that we need to build tech­no­lo­gies that will put ‘expir­a­tion dates’ on past data, to allow us to better grow as human beings.

I find it inter­esting that both books, and the reviewer, imagine that we, as indi­viduals, will be empowered one way or the other. A less optim­istic view, one I’ve men­tioned earlier, is that it will be third parties — gov­ern­ments and cor­por­a­tions — that make the decisions regarding our mem­or­ab­ilia, and con­sequently, our memories.