A recent article in the Boston Globe referenced, quite appropriately, the Borges story "Funes the Memorious" as envisioning human existence with perfect memory, and how little value raw information has.  The article is a good one.  I take issue with one point the author, Jessica Winter, raises, though:  I think JLB could have imagined our current capacity to retain information.  Here is a link to the September 23, 2007 article:

Boston Globe Article