> Dreams probably serve in a similar funtion to the scandisk/defrag
> functions on a computer. Imagine the entire database of information one
> stores from video, sound, touch, smell, and taste in just one day,
> enough to recall any detail under hypnosis. One would have to defrag
> once a day to keep it all organized for long term use.
But it doesn't seem that likely we remember all input we receive. While
temporal lobe stimulation or hypnosis may give almost hallucinatory
recall, they have been shown to create our elaborations on memories, not
the actual sensory data.
One dreaming hypothesis I have heard is that we *forget* during the night;
memories are moved into long term memory from short term memory,
presumably based on how important they are, if they can be subsumed into
other memories (this creates retroactive and proactive interference) and
other parameters. This fits in with the fact that we do not forget data we
memorized just before going to sleep as fast as data memorized before
doing something else (study one hour, take a nap, study some more, take a
nap...).
Uploading in one's sleep is an interesting idea, and might be useful to
get a good base-state to start with. I have always wondered what happens
if you start up an upload with random activation states - probably
something nasty, the mind seem to be a metastable attractor.
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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y