Google has made it easy to erase your search history. I suspect that it’s never really gone digitally, but for the sake of this post bear with me.

If you search for a specific topic on Google and then promptly delete it then that thought stays in your mind. It’s not going anywhere and perhaps with time, it will fade away.

I don’t think you can ever really delete your history. One can opt to ignore certain events or purge negative experiences, but these thoughts stay with you in the recesses of your mind. They shape you.

Deleting your search history on Google sounds like a good way to start with a clean slate and hide from others what you are really thinking. Leaving your search history intact enables someone, at some point, to see where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing.

When and if humans gain the ability to delete where they’ve been and what they’ve done, does this enable us to start over? What is the impact of erasing the memory of physical actions? Does a collective amnesia regarding historical events set in? Are there memories that are worth saving and others that can be discarded? Can we pick and choose what we want to remember?

If you delete the past, then who is defining the future?