ABSTRACT
The merging of storage and memory is arguably most pronounced in the marketing of life-logging devices such as Autographer, Memoto, and SixthSense. More than a mere problem of accuracy in storage and retrieval, memory requires the skillful exercise of selective judgment. It requires meaningful participation in decisions about what and how to remember, as well as what and how to forget. As researchers and scholars are just beginning to understand, memory is not a mental function separate from judgment; rather, it presupposes and depends upon judgment. Nor is memory separate from our understanding of wisdom. In fact, contrary to the catechism of Silicon Valley, wisdom emerges over time through the judicious exercise of both remembering and forgetting. Memory itself is a process of judgment. In addition, advances in neuroscience undermine the catechism's insistence that forgetting is somehow a technical glitch or gross inefficiency that must be overcome.
