a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  4118 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Our Memories

Nice photo, a young primatologist in the making. Memory is a tricky thing. I think lil did a nice job in her post Can I Trust My Memory in talking about how people edit or revise history via their memories. A lot of creativity comes from the subjective nature of memory. We can all have different takes on the same moment. If the future gives us the ability to clearly and objectively remember things, we may miss out on something.





theadvancedapes  ·  4118 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    If the future gives us the ability to clearly and objectively remember things, we may miss out on something.

I think the future will allow for a number of different memory possibilities. I think true and complete objective memory may be possible. But so will false memories, alternate memories, and a wide range of new subjective memories.

It sort of makes me want to reach for Feynman's famous quote about how science only adds beauty. New technologies will only allow us to add to our experience of memory; but it won't subtract. It will essentially be a personal decision how you would like to best engage with your own past, whether that is in a complete objective sense, or in new and different subjective ways.