Viktor Mayer-Schonberger talked about his book Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age (Princeton University Press; October 4, 2009). In his book he discusses an emerging reality in the digital age of perfect remembrance. He argues that cyberspace, combined with digital technology, enables a complete record of any moment in life one wants to preserve and even those one might wish to forget. He presented it as the loss of a human right as technology overrides the natural ability to forget. As well as the dangers of everlasting memory there is the danger of the record being altered and other issues such as privacy rights. He gave examples of the problems caused by the persistence of data. Professor Mayer-Schonberger showed slides during his presentation. He then responded to questions from members of the audience.

This talk titled "Deleted, but not Forgotten" was presented on Monday, October 19, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. as part of Town Hall's Seattle Science Lectures series. It was sponsored by the Town Hall Center for Civic Life and Elliott Bay Book Company.

Viktor Mayer-Schonberger is the director of the Information and Innovation Policy Research Centre and an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He taught at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government for ten years.