Memory Should Decay

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An agent memory run started with 50 stored facts. Each fact had a half-life of 10 ticks. After 30 ticks of a task loop, 8 memories remained.

Those 8 were the ones the agent kept using. The other 42 expired automatically. No cleanup script. No manual pruning. No summarization pass pretending stale facts were still useful.

The experiment is small, but the shape is important. Agent memory does not need to be an attic where every fact waits forever. It can behave more like working state: reinforced by use, weakened by neglect, and removed when confidence falls below a threshold.

Software That Expires

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Software accumulates by default.

Features go in. Compatibility layers remain. Old state keeps its place because removing it feels riskier than carrying it. A temporary endpoint becomes a customer dependency. A migration flag survives long after the migration. A data field whose meaning has changed three times continues to answer because some quiet part of the system still asks for it.

The usual word for this is technical debt, but debt is too clean a metaphor. Debt has a lender, a balance, and a date on the bill. Software decay is less orderly. It is closer to sediment. Each layer is understandable when it lands, and opaque once enough layers have settled above it.

State Management on Stack Research

Memory Should Decay

Software That Expires