Anybody got a hard drive?

Are you just commenting or judging the film?

The character did explain early on that he cannot remember everything he has seen, he just remembers the high points in his life. I do not remember my complete childhood, but i can remember playing with certain toys, opening presents. It's just images of certain points in my childhood. Things that happened withing a decade, i can remember in movie form.

He does imply that he pretty much forgets each scholarly field after he masters it, because he can't come close to keeping up. He's not portrayed in the movie as being Wikipedia on legs.

As far as autobiographic memory: first, there are people who essentially remember every moment of their lives, suggesting a much larger capacity for autobiographic memory than we would otherwise guess. It actually seems to be a flaw in the erasing process, and there's reason to believe that there are serious drawbacks associated with remembering tons of trivial stuff.

Personally, I'm 60, and if conversations with friends (mostly real smart friends, in fact) can be trusted, I have a tremendous autobiographic memory. I used various sources to compile a list of all the movies I think I've ever seen, and I have specific memories of seeing at least several hundred -- which theater, who I was with, and so on. And then there are concerts, meals, ... if I tried to write an autobiography and included everything I remembered, I could probably fill many volumes.

I had a great-aunt (by marriage, so no shared genes) whose autobiographic memory was astonishing. In her mid-90's she was still telling detailed, relevant stories from across her entire life going back to her teens, and none were stories we'd heard before. (Alas, they were never hugely interesting! We'd be talking, say, about a recent wedding, and a feature of that would remind her of one she had been to in her 30's, and she'd tell us the merely somewhat interesting story, in vivid detail ... but it was cool to see her do it at all.)

As you can see from my movie example and from my aunt, people are capable of remembering an amazing amount of stuff that is of trivial importance. It's remembered because it had emotional resonance. I would think that 95% of what I remember could be erased without starting to get at core memories that define my life story and define who I think I am. It could be higher than that.

So I don't find the 40,000 years of memory problem to be a deal-breaker.

And who says he hasn't kept a journal?

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

I agree and he specifically addresses that in his tale.

In the movie he explains multiple times how he can't remember much that he has learned throughout the 14000 years, and even asks his friends how much they remember from their childhood or a decade ago, to underline his situation.

He also states that he never scars, which might explain his healing process not just on the outside but also his brain cells and organs.

This assumption is based on the guy being normal, which he clearly is not.