The story of your life

In this chapter, a wizard reads Dorothy’s mind; a hurricane lashes the Florida coast; and Gatsby remembers his long-lost love. But mainly we discuss what makes memories our own. During human evolution, our brains developed a new form of memory that helped support our complex societies. New levels of “self” representation evolved in an expanding cortex, and they empowered people to infer the intentions and mental states of others. Eventually, these new memories became incorporated into older kinds. Embedding memories of “self” into memories of events established participatory memories; and embedding them into memories of facts or fictions established cultural memories. When these memories first evolved, the sense of participating in events and owning knowledge came into the world and made human memory what it is today.