What’s the most we can remember?

"The maximum lifetime capacity of the human brain to acquire new knowledge by means of learning procedures based on the discussed model can be estimated as no more than several million items." (http://www.supermemo.com/articles/theory.htm) It's about 5-15 digits per item, depending on how you count it: http://www.tofugu.com/2014/03/14/akira-haraguchi-and-his-met.... So as an upper estimate, nobody could remember more than 500,000 digits of pi.

Dates are just math, you need around 20 items to do our current calendar (http://www.timeanddate.com/date/doomsday-weekday.html). Adding in the historical calendars is a little more work, not much; then it's just a matter of practicing and getting fast.

The other phenomena are interesting but not related to memory.

At one point I tried to think of every musician that I could. I listed 923 musicians. I gave up, but I realized I had not scratched the surface: rock music, pop songs, American songs, African songs, French songs, classical music, etc. I'd guess if I tried for a few days I'd come up with 3,000 names.

Then I started thinking of all the people I knew who had something to do with computer programming. I allowed myself nicknames like "Matz" because I can not remember Yukihiro Matsumoto. I know a lot of the famous ones: Guy Steele, McCarthy, Edsger Dijkstra, Rich Hickey, Paul Graham, etc. I also thought about all the tech bloggers I read, which is a huge number. I've got over 300 tech blogs in my RSS feed reader.

Again, I got to almost 1,000 and quit, but I realized I knew a lot more, easily 2,000, maybe even 3,000.

Then I did the same with favorite writers, and I got 540 names without trying too hard.

Then I started with actors and actresses and directors. I got over 400 without too much effort. I think if I devoted a few hours to it, I would get more than 1,000, maybe 1,500, or even 2,000.

Then I started listing people I've known during my life. I allowed myself to describe people who I knew 20 years ago, who I remember clearly though I don't always remember their names. I got over 2,000 during about 90 minutes of trying. I think if I devoted a whole day to it, I might be able to double that number.

Then I allowed myself to write down every fictional character I knew, from Hamlet to Bilbo Baggins to Wolverine. I got well over 2,000 names with maybe an hour's effort.

What I learned from this experiment is that I must know of well over 20,000 people. I might know 50,000 people, counting both fictional and non-fictional people.

That, to me, says a lot about what humans do with the extra brain matter they have, relative to apes.

A shame the article didn't bring up synesthesia. People who have this ability can draw different associations than what normal people do. Meaning they have different / more ways to remember things.

I don't think that information bites is a good analogy for what brains do.

The most we can remember is some fraction of the linux kernel.