Adult Memory: Bad or Just Full?

It's interesting to me that there's an intersection with this and some of the material I'm studying right now for User Interface design. Specifically, I've looked ahead in the course and know that memory decay, short term, will be discussed.

The real problem here is that many of think of the brain as a hard drive in how is stores information--that's just not the case. I've taken a couple of classes that discussed more appropriate metaphors, but I seem to have forgotten what was said.

Speaking personally, and this is total conjecture, I think the reason for our decay of memory is due to the fact that when we're younger, we're more in need of building a model for how our world works. That obviates the need for greater ability to remember things.

As we get older, our need for building new patterns degenerates as we've proven that the patterns/metaphors we've built so far are doing a pretty good job of keeping us alive. My head swirls when I start to think about why and where that energy is being diverted to instead of "learning." A vague estimation from myself is that we shift into a mentoring, or teaching, mode, and being in a true pattern creation mode could somehow interfere with that. I really have no idea.

However, I don't think we really remember things at all. I think we improve our recognition of patterns. It's a little tricky here, but I'm suggesting that you're more prone to have associations with a concept that to remember the exact manifestation of that concept. Even if you memorize a line of poetry, you're only memorizing what it said, not the exact way it appeared on the page with all the details of font, ink density, color/texture of the paper, etc.

And here we come to the real difference in computer and human intelligence. Humans cannot compete with computers on storage, and computers cannot compete with humans on pattern recognition. Actually, computers are much better at both, in a way. I wonder that the real reason computers have difficulty with pattern recognition is that they are dealing more with specifics than generalizations. Humans can believe falsehoods all day long, so long as it generates a metaphor that keeps them alive. Computers, on the other hand, know the most grainular details and can only compare absolute values. They just don't have the ability to generalize the way we do (yet).

Back to the original point...
The thing is, we still retain some capacity to learn. I think that the best way to foster it, keep it healthy, is by forcing yourself to constantly learn and perform mental tasks. Write. Do math. Learn an instrument (this may be one of the best). Read books (fiction/non-fiction). Talk to people outside of your normal social scope. Change your environment (furniture/colors/location). Do a crossword. Basically, do anything that will force your brain to adapt and, perhaps, you can thereby teach your brain a final pattern of always remain ready to adapt.

I just want supplemental storage. Flash RAM connection for my brain would be nice.