Let’s say my life span is greatly extended. How much could I remember? At 300 years of age, would I be able to remember any day of when I was 50?
No one’s really sure.
I’m comfortable with theories. Any of those?
Based on experiences with very old people now, you would probably remember some of your childhood better than later years.
When does childhood start for these people?
And, more importantly, when does it end?
This is really too hypothetical for GQ, but I’ll join in anyway.
Few memories from early childhood stick around. Few memories from old age go to long-term memory. But the stuff in the middle seems to hang in there forever. Kane remembered Rosebud on his deathbed.
So my money says that if someone manages to hang on to the age of 300 but the normal aging process otherwise applies then they would continue to remember all long-term memories that they could remember at age 80.
But if you want to rescale the aging process, and add other qualifications to your premise (like a 107-year-old would be just getting out of adolescence), then the question is too hypothetical to even speculate.
Since a factual answer is unlikely, I’ll move this to IMHO.
samclem GQ moderator
About six letters.
