Careless Memory

Sully passes along the shared memories of "web kids":

To us, the Web is a sort of shared external memory. We do not have to remember unnecessary details: dates, sums, formulas, clauses, street names, detailed definitions. It is enough for us to have an abstract, the essence that is needed to process the information and relate it to others. Should we need the details, we can look them up within seconds.

I'd love to play the ol' "darned kids today!" curmudgeon, but this probably isn't as new as I might think, as I wrote over a year ago:

Turns out the Internet is ruining our memory.

That makes sense to me, just like cell phones ruined our bothering to memorize people's numbers and Facebook ruining our bothering to remember people birthdays - a particular thorn in my side as doing so was my one talent in this life.  Grrr.

This also reminds me of an old family friend, "Chief!"  He's a lawyer and the first time as a kid that I walked into his office and saw the wall-to-wall law books I asked him wow, do you know everything in these books?  and he said no, but I know where to find anything I need.