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To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

quantamagazine.org

41–50 of 126 posts

Re: To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a drug exists. Namely, anything of the benzodiazepine class.

Most people recognize that as Ambien https://popula.com/2018/07/22/the-ambien-diaries/

Ambien is not a benzo. The bizarre behaviour it causes seems to be related to sleepwalking, which is not a common side effect of benzodiazepines.

Re: To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

#42
post #17

I remember sitting at a bar in a distant city in some other country one night, and the person next to me, who I had just met that day, suggested that we do a shot together. Now these shots were big, and it had already been quite the night, and I remember thinking, "If I do this shot, it's probably the last thing I'll remember tonight." It was, but that's not the point of this anecdote. This experience gave me the ide…

No I would not want to take it. "buyers remorse" will be so huge that I will regret for the rest of my life. For example if something bad happened then its fine but if something good happen and I can't remember, that would suck !

I don't know, you could watch your favourite movie over and over again, each time afresh. How you'd determine it was your favourite movie might be tricky, or you might not develop favourite movies I suppose if you just wipe everything after each one.

Re: To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

#43
post #31
post #17

I remember sitting at a bar in a distant city in some other country one night, and the person next to me, who I had just met that day, suggested that we do a shot together. Now these shots were big, and it had already been quite the night, and I remember thinking, "If I do this shot, it's probably the last thing I'll remember tonight." It was, but that's not the point of this anecdote. This experience gave me the ide…

There might be a market for this with high end consultants or psychiatrists as a more secure alternative to signing an NDA. It'll be something similar to the movie Paycheck You give the consultant the drug, then proceed to share your secrets with them and get their expert advice on your issue. Then by the end of the day/week/whatever they'll forget everything you told them and your secrets will be secure.

Philip K. Dick explored this idea in his short story "Paycheck"[0], which was made into a movie[1].

Edit: Did you edit your comment? I'm pretty sure you hadn't mentioned Paycheck. No problem, just making sure I'm not going crazy. :)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_(short_story)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_(film)

Re: To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

#44
Current neuroscience suggests that brain operates in broadly two regimes - learning during wakefulness and model selection during sleep. Both these activities require "forgetting" of specific kinds. Specifically model selection involves trimming synapses. The goal is to learn a model of the world at the right level of detail, what AI folks call avoiding over fitting.

Re: To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

#45
post #17

I remember sitting at a bar in a distant city in some other country one night, and the person next to me, who I had just met that day, suggested that we do a shot together. Now these shots were big, and it had already been quite the night, and I remember thinking, "If I do this shot, it's probably the last thing I'll remember tonight." It was, but that's not the point of this anecdote. This experience gave me the ide…

Such a drug exists. Namely, anything of the benzodiazepine class.

Take enough “xan’s” and you’re describing the same effects

Re: To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

#46
post #17

I remember sitting at a bar in a distant city in some other country one night, and the person next to me, who I had just met that day, suggested that we do a shot together. Now these shots were big, and it had already been quite the night, and I remember thinking, "If I do this shot, it's probably the last thing I'll remember tonight." It was, but that's not the point of this anecdote. This experience gave me the ide…

No I would not want to take it. "buyers remorse" will be so huge that I will regret for the rest of my life. For example if something bad happened then its fine but if something good happen and I can't remember, that would suck !

Soma anal is on the table?

Re: To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While not a crime, i had some friends be very pissed off when i awoke from being blacked out drunk. To this day i do not know what faux pas i did...

Have you asked them? What sort of friends cannot broach the subject with you? There's no reason to continue living in that situation if you can make amends or discover that they judged you in a faulty manner.

Seconded. They probably can’t remember. It’s a powerful thing to hold over somebody. If they ever fancy a chick who’s fancying you at a party for example, with that type of person something is sure to come out to put yhem above you. I’ve had some shitty drinking buddies and cut them all out of my life. Good riddance.

Life is for fucking up and growing, which requires feedback.

Re: To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

#48
If we remembered everything, he said, we would be completely inefficient because our brains would always be swamped with superfluous memories.

Yet there are a few people who, it has elsewhere been claimed, can remember details from every day of their life, on demand. What's 'superfluous' to one of us may be essential to others... a strictly subjective judgement. Some of us are specialists, others generalists.

The trouble with such reporting is that there's little science involved, and a whole lot of anecdotal reportage. Of course, our brains are enormously complex, having to operate in a wide diversity of human and chemical environments. Given the number of variables, solid memory science has yet to emerge ... in articles like this one, at least.

Re: To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

#49
post #27

So, simply put... - short term memory: transaction journal - long term memory: persistent table - sleep: commit and garbage collection As I often said, Computer Science can explain everything.

I should hope that it can at least explain your brain, which is a computer.

Re: To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

#50
post #17

I remember sitting at a bar in a distant city in some other country one night, and the person next to me, who I had just met that day, suggested that we do a shot together. Now these shots were big, and it had already been quite the night, and I remember thinking, "If I do this shot, it's probably the last thing I'll remember tonight." It was, but that's not the point of this anecdote. This experience gave me the ide…

I may be mistaken but believe William Gibson had a similar concept in one of his novels where prostitutes would work while in such a state. They could do disturbing work and be free of the consequences of those memories.

I also believe that if such a drug were available it would find first use in the military by certain specialist units.

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