Is there a Limit to Human Memory?

The ability to remember and recall things is just one of the amazing things our mind can do, and when looked into, is really an impressive feat. Our minds have an absolutely massive storage capacity, but does this mean that they do have a limit? That there is a point to which the mind can memorise things no longer?, or is it endless?

It's an interesting question to bring up because our mind is such a vast place. It's almost like our own miniature universe inside of our heads. Surely though, there has to be a limit? Well...our brain consists of about a billion neurons, each with around 1000 connections to other neurons, with added permutations. Basically - it's a massively gigantic storage facility. I've read that the human mind can store every event that has happened in your life with ease, however, because our brains determine what information we use and which is of most use or significance, most is pushed to the back of the mind where it's never really called upon again. I've also read that scientists estimate that intelligent people will only use up to 2-3% of there memory in there lifetime.

Despite having had a lot of research done on memory, scientists still don't know a lot, and are still learning things to this day about the human mind and memory. Because of this, it would be silly to give a official limit to the human memory when there is still so much to learn.

I think though, the simple answer to the question of whether there is a limit to how much the mind can store, is that yes technically there is a limit, but we will never get anywhere near filling it to capacity...period. Then again what good would that do for us? If we had a mind with a limit that could be reached, wouldn't that just be a hindrance to our life? Not being able to learn new things or remember new places without having to forget something else. It wouldn't work and we couldn't properly function like we can with our minds as they are.

We use our memories to learn from bad experiences, but if we forget about these bad experiences, we have to go through the learning process again, but if our minds have a capacity which we've already reached - we will be unable to remember it or we will have to forget something else, then having to relearn about that. You can probably see the problem that faces having a reachable capacity.

If we weren't as intelligent as we are then it wouldn't be so bad, we wouldn't be able to learn as many new concepts or have the grasp on the understanding of things as we do, meaning there would be less to remember. But because we are intelligent beings, we need to have a mind that will benefit us and not hinder us.

It's a real 'head-scratcher' of a subject to talk about, or in my case write about, because of the things that we don't know and because of the brains complexity.