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A Head for Detail

Congratulations! Your story on Gordon Bell (November 2006) is one of the most fascinating and important articles I can recall ever having read. Where, what, who would we be without our memories? I've already made a PDF copy of your article and stored it safely on my hard drive, together with a backup copy on an external hard disk, a copy on my virtual hard drive, and a spare copy on my USB watch. I'm going to go out and buy the print edition of this issue of Fast Company first thing tomorrow morning, because I want to get it in writing!

Graham Buik
Brussels, Belgium

Clive Thompson's article about Gordon Bell and his Microsoft superhuman brain was both fascinating and disturbing. The opportunity to free our brains to be more productive, to be more creative, and to reduce our stress is fascinating. However, I'm disturbed at the possibility of Microsoft Corp. selling us a surrogate brain with the Microsoft trademark affixed. What will they think of next?

Renita Wolf
Colorado Springs, Colorado

My sister worked with Gordon Bell at DEC back in the 1970s. She confirmed that he was "a neat guy" who still looks great and is just the type who would subject himself to such a life-changing experiment as cataloging his existence on a "surrogate brain." As a jazz saxophonist, teacher, and music-learning software developer, however, I was particularly intrigued by Bradley Rhodes's "Remembrance Agent," Eric Horvitz's "Lifebrowser," and Devon Technologies' DEVONthink. What was left of my hair began to stand on end as I realized these applications come close to mimicking what my brain does as I play music, especially during the improvisation process. Bits and pieces of information (not always musical) fly by instantly and manifest themselves over, through, and around the prepracticed patterns to create new and sometimes exciting ideas. Of course, the bits of info that are forgotten, along with those that I recall but can only feebly attempt to get out of my saxophone, are often what make each improvisation (hopefully) beautifully different from the others. I am anxious to share the article with my students and colleagues … if I can only remember where I put that issue.

Eugene Cantera
Dallas, Texas

The Memory Skeptics

Gordon Bell is not reengineering human memory. And he's not never forgetting. And he does not have an off-site brain. All he has done is build a better mousetrap. He's creating a personal encyclopedia, which, because it's electronic, lets him search it. It's a new file cabinet. It's a tool on which he--and the rest of us--may become dependent. But it's no different from photocopiers (remember carbon paper?), fax machines (remember delivery boys?), cell phones (remember public telephones?), and email (remember writing and mailing letters?).

If, as your cover photo suggests, he could plug his computerized file cabinet into his brain and have it access his artificially stored memories, then he would have a legacy. But, of course, the question would be whether the human brain could work fast enough to make sense of all the data that nature requires us to forget. After all, it would be unnatural for us to remember everything. Thus the need for file cabinets!

Bruce A. Hurwitz
Cliffside Park, New Jersey

It's one thing to have a vague idea of some piece of info you knew in the past and look it up in a vast database. It's altogether different if you totally forget something, and even when someone presented the info to you, you still aren't sure you actually knew it. Knowing and remembering are two separate things.

Linus Ly
Brooklyn, New York

Indexing everything in some sort of meaningful way would put Google to the test. But even if Gordon Bell had perfect physical recall of anything in his past anytime, anywhere he wanted, the very act of indexing would isolate him from the moment and he just might miss an experience much more worthwhile. It's like parents who videotape their kid's entire birthday party only to have missed the party itself because they were too busy putting it on tape. I'll take my experience on the fly and let my memory capture it as best it can, thank you.

Bill Makley
Boca Raton, Florida

The only problem that I have about such an endeavor is relevance. What if we no longer wish to record every event, or if society mandates that our memories be available for public record? Imagine the chaos. Not everyone is willing to give permission to tape their conversations or have their images captured. Nevertheless, your article is interesting and noteworthy.

James Howard
Alexandria, Virginia