How Digital Memory is Shaping Our Future

In a time of abundance of information dueling with the scarcity of human attention, Our stories, ideas, and innovations – in a word, our “culture” – can be recorded and passed on to future generations. Author Abby Smith Rumsey discusses her new book When We Are No More, exploring human memory from pre-history to the present to shed light on the grand challenge facing our world. Serving as a call to consciousness, When We Are No More explains why data storage is not memory; why forgetting is the first step towards remembering; and why memory is about the future, not the past.

In partnership with The Providence Athenæum. Sponsored by Rhode Island Mensa.

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Abby Smith Rumsey is a writer and historian focusing on the creation, preservation, and use of the cultural record in all media. She holds a BA from Radcliffe College and MA, PhD degrees in history from Harvard University, and was a Fulbright Fellow. Rumsey worked with the Library of Congress to develop a national strategy to identify, collect, and preserve digital content of long-term value. She has written and lectured widely on digital preservation, the impact of new information technologies, and the changing roles of libraries and archives in history.a