On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 3:31 PM, Joseph McAllister <[email protected]> wrote: <snip> > "Only the brain, the human brain," Verga said. "And that lasts for about 75 > years." > > From personal experience, I can tell you that it's not that accurate, nor > reliable.
Any court room lawyer or judge will tell you that same thing. In fact, the ~least~ reliable evidence in a court of law is eye witness testimony. It's not just that memories fade, rather every time we remember something we "amend" that memory and then tuck it away in our memory banks. Problem is that the next time we recall the memory, it's the "amended" memory that we recall, not the original one. Problem is that the witness really believes that their memory is completely accurate so they give their evidence in good faith and that can be ~very~ persuasive to a finder of fact (jury or judge). There have been a number of infamous cases where an innocent person was convicted due to inaccurate (but "truthful") eye witness reports, one a conviction based solely on the (inaccurate) evidence of an English vicar! cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
