The same technology that will bury us in data also offers to rescue us. Soon it will not be necessary to sit at the computer to classify notes.

If we let them, physical AI devices will record and document our lives. “By downloading our thinking into a second brain, we free our biological brain to imagine, create and simply be present,” says Tiago Forte. The debate over whether storage devices external to the human body improve or worsen intelligence is as old as Socrates, who distrusted writing.