From: Harvey Newstrom (newstrom@newstaffinc.com)
Date: Sat Jul 03 1999 - 13:43:15 MDT
I wrote:
> This is because the conscious mind filters everything and only records the
important stuff.
Recent research indicates that idiot-savants that have photographic memories
do not have this filter. Everything they see is recorded permanently. It
is theorized that this is the root of many of their problems. Instead of
generalizing data into patterns that can be used to understand new events of
the same pattern, these people record every single event without
generalizing them into patterns. They can recall perfectly hundreds of
prior events, but when the same thing happens again, they are at a loss to
predict the outcome.
When transhumans develop perfect memories, I think such memories need to be
kept accessible, but that generalization and pattern matching need to be
maintained. I'm not sure if access to all the specific details provides too
much data for pattern matching to work. It may be that if we are currently
conscious of every detail at all times, that our minds will be too
overloaded with data to make any sense out of it.
-- Harvey Newstrom <mailto://newstrom@newstaffinc.com> <http://newstaffinc.com> Author, Consultant, Engineer, Legal Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.
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