There's a lot of sloppy usage of the term 'memory' to describe something that's more like a 'consequence'. If you cut a tree, it will heal, and then decades la

There's a lot of sloppy usage of the term 'memory' to describe something that's more like a 'consequence'. If you cut a tree, it will heal, and then decades later the effect of the cut will still be influencing the how the tree grows around the scar. But that's doesn't mean the tree 'remembers' the cut. I don't think you should use the term for anything that doesn't have a consciousness, and only if the memory is something that is directly accessible to the conscious mind (via introspection, for instance), not indirectly via senses. Feeling a sore ankle is not a memory of an injury. Inheriting high lead levels in your blood from your mother is not a memory of lead exposure.