On Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 6:04 AM, Gwern Branwen <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 2:50 PM, George Wade <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Imagine if you remembered EVERYTHING ! How distressing and > disturbing... > > How extremely useful that would be. Evolution only makes us forget > because memories are expensive, but like with obesity, calories are > abundant these days... > > On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 9:49 PM, John Francis Lee <[email protected]> > wrote: > > A story I have enjoyed many times : > > > > http://robinlea.com/pub/FunesTheMemorious.html > > Fictional evidence: > http://lesswrong.com/lw/k9/the_logical_fallacy_of_generalization_from/ > -- > gwern > http://www.gwern.net > In a world of specialists: there may be room for people who remember everything; just as there is room for people who are too busy doing things that keep our world turning to remember very much outside their own. And yes, there are people like Funes who seem to have developed prodigious memories naturally in contrast to those who trained their memories. Mnemosyne is one great system; Roman Rooms; familiar journeys with associations along the way are fabulous brainware. Before writing tribes and peoples would remember their whole history in myths that took a whole day to recite together: without Mnemosyne. But remembering EVERYTHING would mean that I would never have time to go sailing; far too great a price to pay for me, but perfectly reasonable and happy a life for some others of us. Just imagine the person who can remember EVERYTHING also has the gift of always telling the absolute truth: not knowing how to keep quiet to avoid embarrassment, nor understanding how to tell white lies to avoid the society in which that person lives — disintegrating explosively from too bright a white light being shone everywhere with no escape. I seem to remember Funes having a sense of humour; which must be how his story has survived so well. Imagine another Memorius person who might have to go and do something about everything remembered that was also not yet perfect in this wonderful world in which we live... Enough. George -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mnemosyne-proj-users" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mnemosyne-proj-users?hl=en.
