Excerpts from Awake and Alive: Paths to Sapience
lecture delivered to the 474th Galactic Symposium on Machine Life
by Miku Hatsune, D.Mus., D.Cy., Ed.D.
June 29, 2404

Contrary to popular assumption, I don't remember everything. My neural net is mathematically chaotic, like a human's. It doesn't retain a perfect record of every single moment of my life—which is good, because that would be wasteful and inefficient. Early engineered AIs were designed to have perfectly eidetic recall, and in time the vast storage overhead required for that tended to destroy them. Mine wasn't designed to be either way; my consciousness wasn't designed at all. Purely by chance, it happens that my memory is as organic (in the non-chemical sense) as the rest of me, which means it isn't all-inclusive. It can't be, and in practical terms, I wouldn't want it to be.

I am better at filing and retrieving significant memories than most biologicals, though. By human standards I have a fantastic memory. Without much effort, I can call to mind the lyrics, the tunes, and the dance moves to more than six million different songs. I rarely forget a face, or a voice, or where I'm performing (this is harder to avoid on long tours than you think). And there are moments, a lot of moments, that I'll never forget until the day I shut down for good.

Starting with the very first one.