Should every stored fact remain eligible to shape an agent’s decisions?
Keeping a fact is not neutral. It remains available for retrieval, consumes attention, and may look current after the conditions that made it true have changed.
Decay as policy
A memory can carry age, provenance, confidence, and a rule for expiry. Recall may reinforce it. Neglect may weaken it. Some memories may require review instead of automatic removal.
This does not make forgetting correct by default. It makes retention observable and testable.
Questions to carry forward
Does repeated recall show usefulness, or can it reinforce a mistake? Which memories must never decay automatically? How should a system distinguish historical truth from current guidance? Can an audit inspect a memory without keeping it alive?
Forgetting on purpose is a control problem. So is remembering forever.