system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Does your brain hold all the memories of your life but only chooses to show you a few hundred, or does it overwrite itself, "painting over" the older memories with newer ones?
gpt
As far as we know, our brains are capable of storing unlimited amounts of information. The problem is that each time we remember, the memory will be decoded, experienced and encoded once again. During this proces, information gets lost or changed. The next time you remember, it will be a different memory, but you’ll still think it’s the real deal (not all lies are on purpose).

Memories are stored across your entire brain. A certain memory may involve sounds and feelings which, when remembering, will activate the same areas of the brain as were active the moment you encoded the memory. These areas are connected to each other, but as time passes without activation, these connections grow weaker.

At times you may find yourself remembering something you thought you had forgotten. This is due to something around you (anything you senses pick up) triggering the connection that got weakened. The information is never truely lost, but you might need some help remembering.