In the following, we first describe some key advances in the science of memory, cognitive theory, and information technology. In this paper, we outline these advances and the currently accepted definitions of memory, arguing that these necessarily imply that we should today adopt an extended definition. Today, the question is no longer, how many memories can we possibly have, but, how is the vast amount of memory we process on a daily basis integrated into cognition? However, while this expanded definition is often implicitly used, it is rarely explicitly acknowledged or stated. A more narrow definition of memory, as the storage of experiences in the brain, is increasingly at odds with an extended definition, which acknowledges these advances. Yet, these different definitions of memory continue to co-exist. We now talk about memory on a hard drive, or as a chemical change between neurons. What’s more, advances in information technology are pushing our understanding of memory into new directions. But, this idea of memory is at odds with advances in the science of memory over the last century: memory isn’t really a fixed thing stored in the brain, but is more of a chemical process between neurons, which is not static. This way of thinking about memory has led many to wonder if there is a maximum amount of memories we can have. In popular culture, memory is often thought of as some kind of physical thing that is stored in the brain a subjective, personal experience that we can recall at will. doesn’t it reach its limits at some point? Borges leaves that question to our imagination. “To think is to forget a difference, to generalize, to abstract.” The reader may be led to wonder how Funes’ brain has the capacity to store all of that memory. He goes on to note that, even though Funes could remember every split second, he couldn’t classify or abstract from his memories. The narrator is ashamed in the inexactness of his retelling: his own memory is “remote and weak,” in comparison to that of his subject, which resembles “a stammering greatness.” Unlike Funes, he says, “we all live by leaving behind” – life is impossible without forgetting. In the short story “Funes, the memorious,” Jorge Luis Borges invites us to imagine a man, Funes, who cannot forget anything. The brain, and the memory it uses, is a work in progress we are not now who we were then. We further argue that, if we accept that there is such a thing as the storage of information outside the brain – and that this organic, dynamic process can also be called “memory” – then we open the door to a very different world. Looking at natural and biological processes of incorporation can help us think of how incorporation of internal and external memory occurs in cognition. It is a relationship – where one biological or chemical process is incorporated into another, and changes both in a permanent way. Does this new definition of memory mean that everything is now a form of memory? We stress that memory still requires incorporation, that is, in corpore. In the extended definition, memory is the capacity to store and retrieve information. This definition is largely accepted in neuroscience but not explicitly stated. In this paper, we review these advances and describe an extended definition of memory. On the other hand, information technology has led many to claim that cognition is also extended, that is, memory may be stored outside of the brain. On the one hand, molecular neurobiology has shown that memory is largely a neuro-chemical process, which includes conditioning and any form of stored experience. Recent developments in science and technology point to the need to unify, and extend, the definition of memory.
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