Personal Legacy and Memory

My mum is writing a memoir.

Not a formal autobiography. Just stories. Memories. The things that happened and what they meant.

Watching her do this has changed how I think about AI.

The Knowledge That Disappears

Every person carries decades of experience, stories, and wisdom. Most of it never gets recorded.

We think there's always more time. That we'll capture the stories later. That the knowledge will persist.

Then it doesn't.

The technical knowledge of how things used to work. The family stories that explain why we are how we are. The lessons learned through experience that can't be found in books.

Gone. Because nobody wrote them down.

AI as Gentle Archivist

Here's what I'm seeing: AI can help capture these memories through natural conversation.

Not interviews. Not formal oral histories. Just... talking.

"Tell me about when you first met dad." "What was your first job like?" "What do you wish you'd known at 25?"

AI can listen. Prompt for details. Ask the follow-up questions a human might forget. And organize it all into something preservable.

Why This Matters

This isn't about automation. It's about preservation.

Making knowledge human before it disappears.

The expertise that exists only in someone's head. The context that explains why decisions were made. The stories that connect generations.

AI can be the tool that captures what would otherwise be lost.

The Practical Application

I've started recording conversations with family members. Not formally - just casual chats that happen to be captured.

AI helps transcribe. Organize by topic. Surface themes I wouldn't have noticed.

Ten years from now, these will be invaluable. The voices. The stories. The way they said things.

It's not about the technology. It's about what the technology makes possible.

For Your Business Too

This applies beyond family.

The institutional knowledge that exists only in your longest-tenured employee's head. The client history that explains seemingly strange decisions. The lessons from failures that were never documented.

What knowledge would you regret losing?

That's worth capturing. Now. While it's still possible.

The Deeper Truth

We're all temporary. Our experiences. Our knowledge. Our memories.

AI can't change that. But it can help us leave more behind.

Not as a replacement for being present. As a way to make presence persist.

Who in your life has stories worth preserving?

Maybe start that conversation.