Think 20 – 30 years back.

Back then it was scrawny of passwords, pin-codes and account numbers to remember. If we think even further back, there was no phone numbers to remember. We do not have to go many generations back for a time without exams. Today, we sometimes meet more new persons within a week than our grandparents met in a year. The amount of information to remember has gotten enormous, and it has become unnaturally much to remember. But already there are changes going on. Changes to reduce the amount to remember. We no longer need to remember phone numbers; we can save them on our cellphone. In a lot of places you can log using your finger, instead of a password. Several banks have introduced an identical pin-code on all of your cards. You don´t even need to remember the way you are going, you can use the map on your cellphone. You don´t need to remember things you read on posters, because you always have a camera with you. This is just the beginning. Soon, “google glasses” arrives. With these glasses you don´t really need to remember people’s names, their name will appear on the lenses of the glasses. I think that 1995 to 2045 will be the only period that it is possible to make a living out of teaching people memory techniques. In that way, I´ll probably be one of the first and one of the last who practices this profession full-time. Insofar, that is OK. Our forefathers, who didn´t have to remember all sorts of numbers and names, probably lived quite well.

Today’s problem is that there are a lot of things that are hard to remember. The solution is memory technique. But the solution in the future is to take away the things that are hard to remember, such as account numbers, passwords and road directions. Combined with technology.

By Oddbjørn By, Memory Champion and author of Memo