Ask HN: What do you think of the idea that human memory is bugged?

Post by srikanthsrnvs » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 5:23 PM UTC

gregjor wrote: post #6

srikanthsrnvs wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting.. so you mean that human memory is not bugged and perfect from an evolutionary perspective? Isn't it also arguable that retention of trauma is inherently bad from an evolutionary perspective? Let's say someone retains a traumatic event, gets depressed, ends up committing suicide. In that case, if the brain optimized for survival, it would be beneficial to erase the memory. I'd argue that the probab…

Perhaps at this time in history, in some cultures. I doubt our hunter-gather ancestors got depressed and killed themselves after surviving a trauma. I don't think depression and PTSD and suicide happen at constant rates across human cultures, and certainly not in apes or other mammals. You're confusing social pressures and cultural effects with biological evolution.

Post by gregjor » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 6:41 AM UTC

srikanthsrnvs wrote: post #11

gregjor wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps at this time in history, in some cultures. I doubt our hunter-gather ancestors got depressed and killed themselves after surviving a trauma. I don't think depression and PTSD and suicide happen at constant rates across human cultures, and certainly not in apes or other mammals. You're confusing social pressures and cultural effects with biological evolution.

Perhaps not, but the part of our brain responsible for optimizing contentment would ideally prefer deleting traumatic memories