Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • FUTURES

Cyber junk

Memories are made of this?
By
  1. Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

    1. Sylvia Spruck Wrigley was born in Germany, spent her childhood in California and now lives in Estonia. Her fiction has been nominated for a Nebula and her short stories have been translated into more than a dozen languages. You can find out more about her at https://intrigue.co.uk.

Memory cards with a human face on them are dropped into a bin by a digitally rendered hand

Illustration by Jacey

“Your mother is constantly uploading,” Paul muttered instead of Good morning, honey, how did you sleep? “I mean, seriously. Irrelevant detail, random trivia, memories from her childhood. It’s a constant stream of data that no one cares about.”

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02561-1

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Single Molecule Specialist

    APPLICATION CLOSING DATE: 22.02.2026 Human Technopole (HT) is an interdisciplinary life science research institute, created and supported by the It...

    Milan (IT)

    Human Technopole

  • Chief Architect - High Performance Computing and Data Science

    Leads DSU’s High Performance Computing and Data Science, enabling scalable AI, big data, and scientific computing across all CoE.

    Bangalore (Locality), Karnataka (IN)

    Dayananda Sagar University Bengaluru

  • Chief Architect - Robotics and Embodied AI

    Leads Robotics and Embodied AI, building reasoning-driven robots using large-scale reinforcement learning and sim-to-real intelligence.

    Bangalore (Locality), Karnataka (IN)

    Dayananda Sagar University Bengaluru

  • Chief Architect- Spatial Computing (AR/VR/XR)

    Drive excellence in Spatial Computing (AR/VR/XR), building XR platforms, neural rendering, & digital twins for industry, healthcare, & education.

    Bangalore (Locality), Karnataka (IN)

    Dayananda Sagar University Bengaluru

  • Chief Architect: Cyber Defence & Sovereign Security

    Leads sovereign Cyber Defence & Sovereign Security, advancing threat detection, adversarial AI, quantum-safe security, and national digital trust.

    Bangalore (Locality), Karnataka (IN)

    Dayananda Sagar University Bengaluru

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links