Over the last couple of days I've been reading a fun book by Joshua Foer - Moonwalking with Einstein. The Art & Science of Remembering Everything. It sets out to explore what we know and understand about memory, and incidentally provides tips on how you can improve your own memory should you feel like it. It's a fairly light read but full of interesting facts and ideas to ponder.
In ancient times, as the book explains, the ability to memorize was a highly prized and necessary art form, a way of ensuring that knowledge could be passed down and built upon. Special formulae were developed for improving memory skills. Over time this area of expertise has largely been superceded by "externalised memory" - recording and retrieving information outside of our heads, so that we don't actively have to remember very much at all. The digitalisation of information is speeding up this trend no end.
For anyone else who, like me, is a bit resistant to new technologies (not totally resistant, but, you know) this anecdote about Socrates is worth a thought. Several centuries BC, Socrates was a great proponent of memory skills. He is reported to have been quite averse to the new-fangled technology of writing that was just coming into fashion as he thought it would spell the end of memory. Not writing as in printing and books, mind you - we're talking handwriting. Ultimately, I suppose, Socrates was proved right.
Moonwalking with Einstein hangs on a "one year challenge" peg. In this case the author trains himself in memory techniques for a year in order to compete in a USA Memory Championship. "Try it for a year" is a popular gimmick for writers these days, I've noticed - there are books on pursuing happiness; health; Biblical living; cooking like Julia Childs; aspiring to be like Eleanor Roosevelt...all neatly over the course of twelve months. Maybe I could have a stab? Can you suggest a year-long project for me?
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