I have come to understand that the phenomenon of “forgetfulness” plays a larger role than one would expect in the conscious mind.

It seems unimportant. After all we place so much emphasis on learning and growth, development and retention of information and much less so on forgetting. In this way to be forgetful is not usually a good thing especially when it comes to being organised, knowledgeable and aware. Furthermore so many of our mental maladies are based in pathological - even dangerous - forgetfulness; Alzheimer’s, dementia, certain forms of brain damage, learning disabilities and even concentration deficits that prevent us from focusing enough to recall in the first place.

But I’d like to explore for a moment the benefits of forgetting. Consider a much loved song, you play it on repeat over and over until you know every lyric, every riff and you’ll find that after a while you grow tired of it. It loses that “oomf” - that “shiver down the spine” that you got the first few times you play it. It becomes dull. With so many new songs always coming into the stream we often forget to listen to these favourites of the past and, given enough time, the same song can be “rediscovered” and loved again much like the first time we did it. This is of course, because we forget.

Forgetting is the necessary antithesis of learning ... and I would say that the highly Academic/ knowledgeable person , those few that seemingly learn extremely fast and tend to reach high levels of skill and retain it for long periods of time, are not “less forgetful” than anyone else, they don’t have a “better memory” in general, it’s simply that they know “how to forget” - that is, which information in order of priority to allow to be forgotten so as y o retain the rest. It’s like condensing 40 points of unique information down to just 10, but in such a way so as to be able to expand them out again and reach 40 through understanding or having the right associations in place.

Think of the finite number of connections neurons have with one another in the brain. There is ultimately a limited capacity for connectivity because well, there is limited energy supply and limited space in the brain. Sacrifices have to be made to maintain an adaptable “fluid” state that can continue to process new information - the “free to be moved around or reconnected” neurons. The trick with intelligence is knowing which connections to “cut” to make way for new info. And that has a lot to do with knowing how to “condense” information and to condense you must “prioritise and associate” and to do that you must “understand”.

This is the real issue though. Understanding. Because realistically the other process tend to work relatively automatically once you understand something. Knowing and understanding are not the same though we use them interchangeably.
I know the word “Sun” But that doesn’t mean I understand it. Unless I know the 1). importance of sunlight to me and my environment (relationships) 2). The inner workings of the sun - fusion and (Function/ purpose) 3). The origin and fate of the sun.(Chronology).. I can’t really say I “understand” it. I just “know of” it. And this confuses a lot of people when they are learning. Am I just learning unconnected facts which are highly forgettable or am I associating every fact I learn with another fact I’ve learned and building a picture that can’t be broken down so easily.

Computers don’t forget. They store. This means they don’t prioritise because they can both tell 1). That you had an argument with a friend three years ago on Sunday 16th and 2) Your exact location, facial expression and what word you used at 15:35 and 6 seconds. A human would only remember that they had an argument and maybe the rough topic of the argument. Likely they will only remember bits of conversation but mostly how they felt. This is because we condense and prioritise. We don’t need to know specifics. This is also why the more information a computer stores the slower it operates because for it it has to go through every minute detail to find a match like a car racing down the lengths of a really big dictionary for one word... whilst for a human we’re more like “okay is that in the chapter from childhood trauma, hobbies and interests, Stupid things my friend Said when they were drunk etc.”

Forgetting distinguishes us from artificial intelligence (so far). Also forgetting is important to repetition. Why do we keep doing our hobbies. Because we enjoy them. But why does that enjoyment not last. Because it immediately begins to fade as we stop doing it. Forgetting can be thought of as a state of mind too. I’ve often had realisations that I’ve had before and when I have them I recall a lot of the previous time I had them and the facts and memories involved. But only upon realisation to I recall the connected information. I have a feeling de ja vu may be a version of this to a lesser degree where you can’t quite identify the context.