Transformation of Individual and Collective Memory in the Context of Digitalization

The author analyzes problems that have arisen in the context of the digitalization of memory. It is shown that digital memory solves a number of problems, connected with preserving knowledge and the information about past events. But at the same time digital memory produces new problems, first of all those which concern individual and collective autonomy. It is possible to break a digital archive of another person, fabricate his/ her memories and biography. Tracking and storing human actions can be used for manipulating another person. Plenty of digital memory writings doesn’t help, but hinders decision making, limits the space of creativity. The author studies the inseparable connection of remembering and forgetting and formulates the thesis that the possibility of “eternal memory” without forgetting at the digital age is a serious menace to human autonomy, to human essence. In this connection the obligation to remember and the right to forget are analyzed.