Hypothetical question for the experts (non-experts like me can chip in) Opinions welcomed!
I've just purchased a 512 Ram Chip to upgrade my machine.
This made me think (dangerous) "Is there a point where the computer has so much memory that it could lose (IE take forever to process and return an answer) something in it's memory and become human or return the answer 42!

It depends on what operating system you have. Opinions vary on this a bit but Microsoft says that Windows 98 and Windows ME cannot make use of more than 512Mb of RAM.

Windows XP and Windows 2000 overcomes this limitation. The general opinion is that these will work with anything up to 4Gb of RAM. Again though, it depend a bit on which technical opinions you read.

I think the added perfomance of extra ram greatly depends also on the type, quality and speed of the ram i.e. 256k of DDR 333mhz ram would probably be as good in a lot of functions as 512k of SD ram.

In my experience, 512k is plenty for domestic use - unless you are doing some very high end graphics, cad or processing work.

I like graphics and photgraph retouching colouring etc. Some of the edits take ages to apply (probably due as much to a slow processor as for memory reasons). I've only got 256Mb of RAM at present. It would be nice to go to 512Mb but the whole computer is 'of an age' now. I look forward to things like DDR RAM and a blisteringly fast processor that won't leave me drumming my fingers waiting for changes to apply to a 5 - 10Mb graphics file. I think my present motherboard probably wouldn't support DDR RAM anyway.

Sheesh, I can remember having 2mb and upgrading to 4mb! You needed 4mb to install Windows and I wanted Windows - OK, I was mad but there you go.

My first computer (W.95 upgrade on it) had 8Mb. Those who had 16Mb were really envied!

Tellywellies - Sinclair ZX81 - 1 K (not a misprint) with 16 K expansion plugged in(Bought at a Rummage(Garage) Sale for 15 UK Pounds . And you could programme basic (very basic) games to play on it. (Still have it and it still works!)

I take your points about the equipment, my motherboard/chipset won't accept a 40G hard disc or 512 memory chips, and having upgraded the RAM is fast enough for anything that I want to do at the moment (No 1 Son say's it's still too slow) - My original question was comparing the computer RAM to the human brain, I've often been asked a question to which I know I know the answer but can't recall it - then remember the answer as I'm driving home a couple of hours later. Is there now, or going to be, a point where this happens with computers?

Ah yes, the ZX81 certainly brings to mind an era. Our kids had a Commodore. One of the sons wrote his first computer program on it.

As regards memory, I think todays technology means that computers will never have much trouble retrieving information stored in the memory quickly and on demand, no matter how large it is. Magnetic memory is probably the next thing. This will even retain a memory when the computer is turned off. Are we then getting towards doing away with hard disks I wonder?

I know we have trouble with quick memory retrieval at times but our memory is lots better than computer memory in other ways ...unfortunately I can't remember what they are at present