In Orality and Literacy, Walter Ong explains how the evanescence of speech, coupled with the limitations of human memory, produce for 'primary oral societies' - societies with neither writing nor reading - a fundamental problem about the preservation of knowledge. The favored solution to that problem, Ong remarks - imperfect though it may be - is to 'Think memorable thoughts'. Wouldn't it be better just to eliminate the incapacities of memory itself? Ireneo Funes certainly did that, didn't he? Is he the ideal - or even possible - solution to the problem of preserving knowledge?