Do you believe there's any truth to it? Regular people with extraordinary memories that can remember specific details?
Do you believe there's any truth to it? Regular people with extraordinary memories that can remember specific details?
There are documented cases of people that can remember every day of their lives. I remember a kid that was interviewed. He said he remembered all the best days of his life but the downside was that he also remembered all the worst days of his life too.
If I'm given those choices, I think I will pick my forgetful memory.
https://irisreading.com/5-stories-of-people-who-remember-eve...
I don't doubt that there are documented cases of that, but I'm trying to be more open minded about what it means (doesn't mean you have to be as well, but I'm curious if you are thinking exclusively about "remembering everything").
I would think that HN would be a place where people with photographic memory are more likely to appear. Shame there hasn't been more input from the community.
That sort of visual memory declined sharply after puberty.
I was still pretty good at memorizing things; in high school, memorizing lines for drama productions. But that was nothing like the visual memory that I used to have.
Almost certain that this isn't quite what is meant by photographic memory, but I wonder if what I experienced was anything at all related.
I'm sure part of it was the amount of information I was expected to remember but something changed on how easy it was to remember stuff.
ofalkaed•6mo ago
alganet•6mo ago
For example, the ability to recognize that something is not remembered and how to deal with the discrepancies might be underestimated in how humans interact with their own memories.
We all have this, right? If I tell you that there are 11 digits in the decimal system, you know there's something wrong. There's a whole system in your head that expects the decimal system to have 10 digits. At some point, it was memory, but then it became something more.
Of course, the number system is something simple. My question extends this kind of thinking to possible different areas.
ofalkaed•6mo ago
How would you feel about being friends with someone who remembers everything? Long ago I learned to not show off my memory because few want to be in a relationship with someone who is going to remember every failing and slight even if those failings and slights are not held against them. Most people seem very good at forgetting and very good at identifying what they should forget and when they can use forgetting as an excuse, etc, that all falls apart if you are friends with someone who remembers it all or even most of it.
I half think most people actually remember just as well as I do, I just failed to develop the skill of forgetting. I just don't think you could function in society with a perfect memory, it is bad enough with a good memory.
alganet•6mo ago
Ultimately, you're skipping the question and jumping to consequences. You don't care about whether it exists or not, you're trying to think what it means if it does. However, since you're skipping what it actually means, that whole set of consequences is constrained to your worldview (or some worldview you decided should be presented in this discussion).
In my conception of the idea, there is no perceptible side-effect of eidetic memory on normal relationships. It would require some apparatus to detect such things.
I will accept your reversion of things, now that I restated the problem back to the original question. I would gladly be friends with someone who remembers everything and I think it would be a productive friendship.
ofalkaed•6mo ago
alganet•6mo ago
ofalkaed•6mo ago
alganet•6mo ago