The future of memory

My memory used to be good. Genuinely good. As a kid I could replay whole animated films in my head, frame by frame. I memorized texts without trying. And then, somewhere along the way, that ability just left. I don’t fully know why. Perhaps you can relate.

But, suffice it to say, memory has been on my mind.

That’s why I was looking forward to my conversation with Dr. Anthony Metivier, who has spent years building memory techniques and teaching them to other people—partly, it turns out, because his own memory is bad too. That surprised me. He wasn’t a guy with some rare natural gift to remember things. He struggled with his own memory.

Which, should make us hopeful. Because memory, as it turns out, can be improved. Significantly. It’s a matter of skill, not just innate talent.

We also discussed deeper questions about technology’s impacts on our cognitive abilities, the internet as humanity’s external memory, what happens when it vanishes, and the balance between preserving the past and l…