Enhanced memory
| Enhanced memory | |
|---|---|
 Charlie helps out with a crossword puzzle. | |
| Originally held by: | Charlie Andrews, Matt Neuenberg (deceased) |
| Absorbed by: | Sylar (original timeline, lost) |
| Ability to: | Quickly absorb and accurately retain great amounts of information |
| Examples of enhanced memory | |
Enhanced memory (also referred to as eidetic memory or enhanced thought processing) is the ability to quickly absorb, perfectly retain, and immediately utilize immense amounts of information. Users can remember and recall everything that they have ever experienced, encountered, or learned. Users need only to read, hear, see, or observe something once and they will never forget it. As they continue to learn, their brains will seemingly allow an infinite capacity for memory and information storage. User can process unlimited amounts of information, without any hindrances or backlashes of information. Users have the capability to process an infinite number of simultaneous calculations, allowing them to identify all the variables in any theoretical or practical situations by instantly recombining all information known.
Characters
Confirmed
- Charlie Andrews is the first known person to have this ability. (Seven Minutes to Midnight)
- Matt Neuenberg naturally possessed this ability. (The Man with Too Much Brains)
- Originally, Sylar stole this ability from Charlie (Road Kill), but lost it after being infected by the Shanti virus (Kindred). He never acquired this ability in the new timeline in which Charlie is saved by Hiro (Once Upon a Time in Texas).
Unconfirmed
- According to Trevor Tanaka's Heroes: Survival profile, he possesses this ability.
- According to Katherine Murry's Heroes: Survival profile, she possesses the ability of "enhanced thought processing".
- According to Pacy McNeil's Heroes: Survival profile, he manifested "photographic memory and reflexes" after an eclipse.
Limits
The limits of what a character with this power may remember are not yet known. To date, all of the examples shown are based on information the user has read; whether other information can be recalled is unknown. However, Charlie did state that she was able to remember things whether she wanted to or not.
Charlie Andrews
Charlie was able to remember everything she read since she first manifested this power. She was also able to comprehend and use the knowledge gained almost immediately.
Charlie has the ability to remember everything that has happened in her entire life. She can memorize books word for word that she read in elementary school. She even remembers the night her parents died in a car crash when she was only six months old. (Saving Charlie)
When her aneurysm started to burst, Charlie started to absently recite random information about a Japanese city. (Once Upon a Time in Texas)
Sixty-five years after being trapped back in 1944, Charlie was still able to remember being what the weather was like when she was trapped there. (Brave New World)
Sylar
Sylar was able to read the owner's manual for a tractor-trailer and immediately use that knowledge to drive the vehicle.
Matt Neuenberg
According to the testing the Company has done on him, Matt Neuenberg has the capability of remembering great amounts of information. With the aid of a goggle device, Matt is able to store an entire mainframe computer's worth of data and have his brain be a makeshift backup drive. (Hana and Drucker's Plot Discovered)
Selected Examples
-
Charlie Andrews immediately knows the answer to a crossword puzzle on which Sheriff Davidson was working...
-
...and later begins to speak some basic Japanese, having only started reading her phrase book one week ago.
(Seven Minutes to Midnight) -
Charlie learns both spoken and written Japanese in a matter of days from a Japanese phrase book.
(Six Months Ago) -
In the original timeline, Sylar skims the operations manual for an eighteen-wheeler and successfully drives it cross-country.
(Road Kill) -
Matt Neuenberg recites pi from memory.
(The Man with Too Much Brains) -
Matt stares at a computer screen, learning codes.
(Hana and Drucker's Plot Discovered) -
Matt begins memorizing the Company's entire mainframe.
(Hana and Drucker's Plot Discovered) -
Charlie answers Sylar's difficult questions correctly.
(Once Upon a Time in Texas)
.JPG)
Memorable Quotes
"If you really want to test me, you oughta ask if I remember your credit-card numbers."
"Very! Good! Memory!"
"Yeah, I remember lots and lots. It's just something that my brain started doing lately, whether I want it to or not."
- - Hiro, Charlie (Seven Minutes to Midnight)
"Lately, I've just been able to remember everything."
"You have power, big memory."
- - Charlie, Hiro (Six Months Ago)
"Are you kidding, Einstein? You've got a mind like a search engine."
Notes
- In a blog entry, Hiro described Charlie's power as being "like Wikipedia, Google, my own Jeeves," referring to popular search engines and online encyclopedias.
- In an interview, writer R.D. Hall said, "I'd say [Charlie's power] is more just her remembering anything--whatever she reads, whatever she sees. Matt's is all visual...Matt is more like a card reader. You put in an SD card, he'll read it." However, Elle states that Matt is also an audible learner (Hana and Drucker's Plot Discovered).
- According to Heroes: Survival, Pacy McNeil has the ability of "photographic memory and reflexes". It is unknown if this ability refers to enhanced memory, adoptive muscle memory, or a different ability altogether.
- Hiro has traveled in time and altered the timeline, so Sylar didn't kill Charlie and never acquired her ability. Instead, he used his own abilities to save Charlie as part of a deal with Hiro.
- According to Heroes Interactive, Charlie can not only remember information she receives, but can also quickly synthesize it.
- Heroes: The Official Magazine refers to this ability as "accelerated learning" and "eidetic memory". The Heroes Reborn app also refers to this ability as "eidetic memory".
See Also
- For other uses of memory, see memory (disambig).