If Only a U70 Brain Had an “Upgrade Storage” Button

One morning over coffee, Mr. Old Man opened the Notes app on his phone, intending to write about something brilliant.

He unlocked the phone.

Opened the Notes app.

Then… just stared at the screen.

Completely forgot what he had wanted to write.

Many people in their sixties or seventies probably know that feeling well. Before opening the phone, ideas are rushing through the mind like a flood. But the moment the Notes app appears, the brain suddenly becomes as empty as a freshly formatted hard drive.

That got Mr. Old Man thinking: perhaps the human memory works a lot like a computer or a smartphone. Some machines are powerful, some are not. Some have lots of memory, others very little. It all depends on the specifications — how much RAM, how many gigabytes of storage.

And those specifications are determined by the manufacturer.

In the tech world, a company can produce a 64GB phone or a 512GB phone to suit different budgets. Parents, however, can try their best but still cannot exactly manufacture children with genius-level intelligence or photographic memories.

As time passes, the human memory gradually fills up, much like a hard drive that has never been cleaned up. The difference is that when a computer runs out of space, you can add more RAM, install a larger SSD, or buy more cloud storage. When a smartphone is full, you simply subscribe to more iCloud storage.

Human memory, unfortunately, doesn’t come with those options.

Leaving aside the rare people blessed with extraordinary memories — perhaps thanks to good genetics or some lucky genetic mutation — most of us experience at least some decline as the years go by.

That is why Mr. Old Man greatly admires people in their nineties, even centenarians, whose minds remain remarkably sharp and organized, often better than those of many younger people.

He also admires people in their seventies who still put on their headphones every day to learn a foreign language, just in case they get the chance to chat with grandchildren living overseas.

Mr. Old Man has never considered himself particularly intelligent. But when he was young, his memory was pretty impressive. A new set of school textbooks would arrive, and within a week or two he had already read most of them and remembered quite a lot.

These days, however, it doesn’t feel as if the memory is completely full.

It feels more like there might be a loose socket somewhere…

Or perhaps a few bad sectors.

Trying to cram too much new information into the brain now is like overpacking a suitcase. Push something in on one side, and something else pops out on the other.

Fortunately, not everything has fallen out yet.

There is still enough left to answer questions reasonably well when people ask. There is still enough left to write these little ramblings every day — a bit of mental exercise, perhaps, in the hope of slowing down the wear and tear.

Only now and then, while sitting over a cup of coffee, Mr. Old Man opens the Notes app and stares blankly at the screen for a few seconds…

Wishing that this U70 brain came with an “Upgrade Storage” button, just like a smartphone.

_________

Mr. Old Man