Internet remembers it all
We live in a world where forgetting is commonplace and remembering is unusual. This may not be a flaw in human evolution. What is no longer important to our present is forgotten by the mind. Human memory constantly gets rebuilt; it is not kept in its ideal state but rather changes with time, assisting individuals in avoiding cognitive dissonances.
I randomly opened Snapchat today while procrastinating on some work. As I scrolled through the memories section in boredom, I was reminded of how the digital world has become one big external hard drive storing all our past lives.
7 years ago, I was participating in a street play competition dressed in my typical kurta-jeans-dupatta attire and had a kite flying competition just post that. I flew a kite for the very first time this day, a friend who rarely talks to me taught me how to.
6 years ago I am sitting at chaupal, tired, in my PJs, and I was at drama society practice at 7 am at a college I didn’t even end up going to. I remember we did an activity where we lied down on the ground in complete silence surrounded by trees and did a mental exercise where half of us ended up crying.
5 years ago I was dead drunk dancing at my best friend’s brother’s wedding, it was also the first time I was allowed out late.
4 years ago I was conducting a cleanliness drive at a nearby village and I’m sitting at a panchayat ground with kids and teaching them the difference between types of waste.
3 years ago it was Janmashtami, the mandir is decorated with balloons because it was covid lockdown and we could not get flowers my brother who is 6’2 now is a little baby,
2 years ago I’m on a random drive with my best friends because the pandemic just got better and I could see them in private spaces
1 year ago I was planning to leave a toxic job, today I’m sitting on my bed writing this, on a short career break, and preparing for something that can possibly change my life.
This walks down memory lane was no great revelation - just that the internet has become a catalog of our past. Would I have remembered all of this if it weren't for digital archives? Technology keeps human history alive for everyone, rich or poor. However, humans have never had to create willful forgetting techniques. People automatically forgot things, so when they did recall them or were reminded of them, they gave them significance and importance—otherwise, why would they remember?
Why miss a partner's birthday or a dinner appointment with a friend when you can store the details on your computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet and receive a timely reminder? The rise of the internet is giving birth to a phenomenon termed "digital amnesia," wherein people struggle to retain information due to relying on digital devices for storage.
I remember reading a couple of years back, how The Beatles lost track of many songs because they lacked a medium to record or archive them. However, it's possible that just as spoken stories gave way to the written word, the presence of digital gadgets to externalize our memories suggests that we need not strive to remember everything. It holds true – since anything can be searched on Google, our personal recollection has diminished. Instead, we now choose to remember only the truly significant matters. And if we can enhance our memory with a little assistance from our technological companions, this could be considered a significant step forward.
I worry that as we increasingly lean on AI to guide our choices, our capacity for critical and independent thinking is slipping away. I sense myself becoming dumber, and more reliant on technology. With technology now deeply woven into our daily existence and tools like chatgpt a simple click away, are we farming out our knowledge? Are we diminishing our intellect? Could we lose the ability to compose an email without AI? Write a sentence without grammar check and rephrase it. I recall reading somewhere that, in essence, we're turning into "Homo Appiens" – a species of semi-sentient beings that have traded their autonomy for convenience.
I remember my high school best friend's phone number by heart because I used to share my phone with my sister and did not have access to it all the time. I had to remember the number to call from my mom’s phone. We cannot do simple math calculations without a calculator and retain vital information like phone numbers or addresses. There's a growing concern that, as machines advance, our grasp of their functioning and decision-making could wane.
AI’s increasing use may enhance our efficiency, but it's also chipping away at our intelligence. Our reliance on machines is dulling our ability to dissect, scrutinize data, and arrive at informed conclusions. We're morphing into a cohort of automatons, content to let machines do the mental heavy lifting. This can result in a reduction in diverse thinking, leading to less-than-optimal collective performance. In essence, humans begin imitating AI, ceasing to challenge their own minds, thus exhibiting a uniform kind of cleverness, no differentiation.
Those excessively dependent on social media news, which itself leans heavily on AI tools, might gradually transform into alike entities, trapped in the echo chambers of AI-driven news streams, where various viewpoints fade. As different groups splinter in their collective thoughts, they become unable to appreciate differing perspectives, and at the far end, they inhabit alternative realities.
Every online move we make is documented digitally and stored in the cloud, ready for retrieval – either by us or others. Sometimes, I contemplate training AI to respond as I would, based on my digital history. With my inbox frequently overflowing and my information retention wavering, AI might just serve as the personal assistant I've longed for. Yet, giving a machine with the power to represent me in my absence sounds intriguing, yet also potentially dangerous.
Whatever the solution may be, one thing is clear: we can't afford to become too dependent on machines. We need to preserve our own cognitive abilities and retain our autonomy as thinking beings. We need to be intentional in life and not go by default settings and routines.
I am thinking more about this, maybe you should too.
Links I’ll whatsapp you if we were friends:
(On some days I’m only writing because I know the 5 people who will definitely read this and write back to me. I love when you write back to me and tell me how you felt, what you liked, or what you think can be improved. You can just reply to this or drop a text on any of my socials, I appreciate it so much and I’ll get back to you soon, Promise)
Stay Curious, Remember to drink water.
Until next time,
With Love,
Something about this post reminded me of that news item from some years ago, where someone tried to create an AI chatbot based on their best friend that died in an accident. That's what led to the creation of the Replika app. It's all bizarre, isn't it? Feels like you're writing this (and I'm reading this) in the middle of some sort of consciousness leap.