Consent in an Age of Pre-Forgetting
On how digital systems train us to agree without understanding
In brief: Pre-forgetting is the trained habit of consenting without reading, accepting without understanding, agreeing to terms designed not to be understood—a condition where we forget what we agreed to before we ever knew it.
The Architecture of Non-Reading
Terms of service are designed not to be read. They are designed to be clicked. The length is intentional. The complexity is strategic. The wall of text exists precisely to discourage understanding.
If users actually read and understood these agreements, many would refuse them. The business model depends on non-reading. The architecture ensures it.
We have been trained to consent. The training is complete.
What Pre-Forgetting Means
Normal forgetting is forgetting what you once knew. Pre-forgetting is never knowing in the first place—yet being legally bound as if you did.
You clicked "I Agree." You have no memory of what you agreed to. You never had such a memory, because you never read the terms. Yet you are bound by them.
This is consent without knowledge. Agreement without understanding. Contract without meeting of minds.
The Scale of the Problem
Consider how many agreements you have made:
- Every app on your phone
- Every website with an account
- Every service, platform, subscription
- Every update that changed the terms
- Every cookie banner you dismissed
The average person is bound by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of agreements they have never read and cannot recall. Each click was consent. Each consent was pre-forgotten.
The Legal Fiction
The law treats these as real contracts. You clicked. You consented. The fact that no reasonable person could read every agreement they encounter is irrelevant.
This legal fiction serves those who write the terms, not those who must accept them. It creates the appearance of consent while making actual informed consent impossible.
When consent is designed to be meaningless, is it still consent?
Questions a Free Person Should Ask
- How many agreements am I bound by that I have never read?
- What have I consented to without knowing?
- Who benefits when consent is designed to be meaningless?
- What would happen if I tried to read everything I sign?
- Is pre-forgetting consent, or is it something else?
- How do I give meaningful consent in a system designed against it?
What This Means for Ordinary People
Perfect solutions do not exist. You cannot read every agreement. You cannot function in modern society while refusing every unreadable contract.
But you can resist the training. You can occasionally read what you sign. You can choose services that offer clearer terms. You can support laws that require meaningful consent rather than legal fictions.
Most importantly, you can recognize what has happened to consent itself. You can name the condition. You can refuse to believe that clicking equals understanding.
Pre-forgetting thrives on invisibility. Naming it is the first step toward resisting it.
We have agreed to more than we can remember
because we never knew what we agreed to.
The question is whether consent means anything
when we are trained to give it without thought.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is pre-forgetting?
Pre-forgetting is the trained habit of consenting without reading, accepting without understanding—never knowing what you agreed to while being legally bound by it.
Why are terms of service designed to be unreadable?
If users understood these agreements, many would refuse them. The business model depends on non-reading. Complexity and length are strategic features, not accidental.
Is clicking "I Agree" genuine consent?
Legally, yes. Meaningfully, often no. When consent is designed to bypass understanding, it creates the appearance of agreement while making actual informed consent impossible.
What can individuals do about pre-forgetting?
Occasionally read what you sign. Choose services with clearer terms. Support laws requiring meaningful consent. Most importantly, recognize and name the condition.
Continue Exploring
- The Bargain We Didn't Know We Made — The cost of free services.
- What We Inherit When We Surrender Choice — Downstream consequences of concessions.
- The Liberty to Say No — Refusal as an act of freedom.
- Freedom & Sovereignty Hub — Explore all essays on liberty and choice.