While sitting in a convenience store waiting for the heavy rain to stop, a friend of mine randomly asked one of the most classic questions in our group chat: ‘If you can have one superpower, what would that be?’ Though I didn’t answer, I approached the question a little differently: What is humanity’s most important ability?

I was curious. Compared to other animals, aren’t humans already superanimals? Thus, I find it amusing to look at our super abilities and spend a moment admiring them.

Well, what’s Google’s answer? Critical thinking, communication, adaptability, creativity, and the list goes on. As I uncovered more answers from the web, there was one ability that I couldn’t find anywhere — the ability to memorize.

It is so astounding to me, not just because of the fact that it was an answer that I couldn’t find anywhere, but also to think about the world where no one has the ability to memorize. Imagine it with me: A world where everyone would be a stranger to each other, where you can never recognize a familiar face, where no knowledge will ever be passed on, where you will never be able to learn something new; even worse, what if you forget to breathe? What if you forget to eat? What if you forget the feeling of thirst, and never knew that you need to drink a cup of water before the world before your eyes just becomes dark?

Humans develop by building on top of existing knowledge, knowledge that was discovered by humans themselves. When taking the picture of a world with no memory to the extreme, humanity crumbles, a fascinating picture regardless. That fascination, when reflected in the real world, grows exponentially when you look at those with memories robbed — those with dementia.

When many (mostly unintentionally) found individuals with dementia to be quite annoying to talk to — understandably so as you’re talking to someone who might forget the conversation in seconds, to someone who might be agitated easily, and many more inconveniences — I find these people to be one of the most interesting to converse with. How can you not be curious, when you can learn how they cherish the memories that they retain, and the way they value such memories compared to us? When the whole world is a stranger, how does that affect your worldview? When your memory becomes a blank canvas, how does your creativity differ? When the past becomes an unknown, how do you approach the future? When life takes away your ability to memorize, what is the one memory that you wish to remember till the end of your life?

I have yet to have a chance to ask these questions to people with dementia, but when I say I do research about the disorder, I find it untruthful to say that my purpose is not only to somehow help them, but also to learn from them, to access the world from a novel view that I have yet to be able to. In a reality where every human is so unique that it is nearly impossible to look at life from every distinct perspective, wouldn’t it be cool to look at the same thing every day with a refreshed mind, to look at the world from the view of those who share the memory of nothingness?