Quote by Edward De Bono, Lateral Thinking

A memory is anything that happens and does not completely unhappen. The result is some trace which is left. The trace may last for a long time or it may last only for a short time. Information that comes into the brain leaves a trace in the altered behaviour of the nerve cells that form the memory surface. A landscape is a memory surface. The contours of the surface offer an accumulated memory trace of the water that has fallen upon it. The rainfall forms little rivulets which combine into streams and then into rivers. Once the pattern of drainage has been formed then it tends to become more permanent since the rain is collected into the drainage channels and tends to make them deeper. It is the rainfall that is doing the sculpting and yet it is the response of the surface to the rainfall that is organising how the rainfall will do the sculpting.ISBN 0140137793 Copyright

Summary

This quote explains the concept of memory by comparing it to the formation of a landscape. Just like rainfall shapes the contours of a surface, the brain receives information that alters the behavior of nerve cells, leaving a trace or memory. The accumulation of memories creates a memory surface, similar to how rainwater forms rivulets, streams, and rivers. Over time, these patterns become more permanent as they deepen. The quote emphasizes the idea that memory is not just the information itself, but also the response of the brain to that information, which organizes and shapes how memories are formed.