The Third Memory

Abstract

The paper is the result of long reflections on the essence and mechanisms of human memory. The complex phenomenon of memory is considered in the article from the perspective of various approaches, both natural science and human science, in which memory is understood either as a biological property, or as a social function, or as a cultural construct. The author puts forward a hypothesis that in the current age of high technologies we can talk about the formation of a third type of memory, some kind of artificial storage, in which personal and internal experiences coexist with a continuous flow of external information. The virtual nature of such a memory to a certain extent eliminates the usual opposition between the collective and the individual, and thereby not only expands the epistemological capabilities of a person, but also significantly corrects his existential parameters.