About that last part: The more we think about something, the easier it is to remember. So scanning blogs on the internet doesn’t stick too well in the memory. And your mind gets lazy – I’ve noticed after spending time on the internet it’s harder to stay focused on a book. 

Also, I don’t know if this is on PCs but on my MacBook when you select an icon and press command+i (get info) the first thing in the info box is “spotlight comments,” which I use to type in descriptions of images I may want to find later. And so when I am looking for a picture of food for a blog entry I just go to spotlight in the top right and type in food, and there are all my files related to food. The spotlight results (which come up in a drop-down, with the option of seeing ‘more info’ in a window) are categorized by ‘top hit’ (the most accurate result) and then applications, documents, music, pictures, etc. Sometimes in real life if am looking for something, I find myself thinking about ‘spotlighting’ or ‘command+f’ (find) and it’s frustrating not having real-life indexed as well as my laptop. This sounds like the frustration you experience as well. 

I heard a segment on NPR a couple months ago about medicine one day achieving a device or something that could allow humans to have perfect recall, a sort of spotlight search or ‘find’ function for one’s own mind. The speaker was asking callers if they would want that, were it possible. It seems like it would be very handy, of course, but it is a lot of information. Searching would be good, I think, but having perfect recall “on” all the time would just be overwhelming. Your mind has filters for a reason. 

The possibility is there – I once read (in ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat’) about a woman who had a stroke which caused her to see and hear scenes from her childhood as vividly as if she were actually there. But at the same time, she was aware that she was in the doctor’s office talking to the doctor. It just goes to show that every little thing we experience is locked away in the unconscious mind, and it’s just a matter of accessing what you want. The brain merely chooses what information is most relevant as a way to lighten the cognitive load.