Meta memory

A recent article in Science (1) describes how internet has slowly transformed the way people memorize information – largely delegating the information storage to the internet. This is a good outcome, as it will push raw information to a central repository, unburdening people. What is memorized by the individual is only metadata – characteristics of the information, such as its location and depth. With metadata, the individual can always access the necessary information at any time.

Memorizing raw information has always been an inefficient process for humans. Early on, the brain was very efficient to store the necessary information along with the logic to process them. As information increased, the brain struggled with storage and often devised clever ways to discard less valuable information. The problem with this process is that what is considered valuable at present may be different from what may be valuable in the future. If information can be pushed to the internet and only a small metadata tag needs to be stored, the brain will have access to a larger information set.

This should enhance innovation. After all, innovation is about information processing and not storage. The use of any piece of information in the future cannot be predicted and so the most efficient process is one that stores everything. However, if humanity takes this path forward, it also has to substantially improve retrieval. Internet is unlikely to satisfy the needs of a society that is significantly more innovative – one that seeks interconnections and on-demand retrieval of context and not just raw information. Unlimited storage of raw information has to be accompanied by categorization and neutral processing into contexts, activities current technologies are ill equipped to do (2).

We may be at the threshold of a different kind of technology. It is time we moved beyond the internet.

(1) Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips, Betsy Sparrow1,*, Jenny Liu2, Daniel M. Wegner3

(2) Flexibility: Flexible companies for the uncertain world http://is.gd/flexbook