11.11.07
In the archives of the brain, our lives linger or disappear.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-11/memory/foer-text.html?fs=canyon
Pretty amazing. It's true when they say that tragedies and humiliations seem to be etched most sharply, often with the most unbearable exactitude, while those memories we think we really need—the name of the acquaintance, the time of the appointment, the location of the car keys—have a habit of evaporating. It's frustrating really, most of the time. But here's the deal, at least there's a tradeoff.
"There are good evolutionary reasons why our memories fail us in the specific ways they do. If everything we looked at, smelled, heard, or thought about was immediately filed away in the enormous database that is our long-term memory, we'd be drowning in irrelevant information."
Now that's why remembered birthdays and anniversaries make us feel special. And that's probably how we intrinsically filter out what is important, and later through remembering display what we cherish. And so possibly it's forgetting, not remembering, that makes us essentially human.
Of course, if I could specify to have that newly coined hyperthymestic syndrome specifically for medical knowledge, I would more than jump on it. But for now, I guess I shall live with my imperfect brain and spend more time trudging through my notes, and later scouring through my brain while I'm at my examination desk. Wish me luck!
i fluttered by;
2:18 PM
