Lots of people have suggested time distortion effects from psychedelics have to do with altering how this system works -- if time input decays more slowly, that would explain things like visual trails and so on.
How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
11–20 of 24 posts
Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#12I actually think it's much simpler than all of this. I may be extrapolating from my own brain a bit, I'm fairly certain that the brain creates a timeline of the past by running a garbage collection function every night that goes something like:
if (memory.timestamp Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#13I actually think it's much simpler than all of this. I may be extrapolating from my own brain a bit, I'm fairly certain that the brain creates a timeline of the past by running a garbage collection function every night that goes something like: if (memory.timestamp
I think its a bit more complex than that, maybe something like
if (memory.timestamp {
memory.significance = score;
})
}Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#14As a programmer I think I forget a lot because programming keeps my brain busy thinking about things. I forget features and solutions I've done before. I think it's because the space inside the brain is limited. I'm thinking hard about a new problem every day. Whereas my boss can remember things I did a year ago I can't easily.
Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#15As a programmer I think I forget a lot because programming keeps my brain busy thinking about things. I forget features and solutions I've done before. I think it's because the space inside the brain is limited. I'm thinking hard about a new problem every day. Whereas my boss can remember things I did a year ago I can't easily.
Maybe its just you being in the business longer than me, but I've had pretty much the opposite thought: I'm learning new stuff every day, wondering when I will start to actually forget chunks of it. Currently, it seems like most technical knowledge tends to stick in my brain, with no apparent limit yet. I can still recall most of the Redis protocol commands despite not having used it in more than six years.
Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#16As a programmer I think I forget a lot because programming keeps my brain busy thinking about things. I forget features and solutions I've done before. I think it's because the space inside the brain is limited. I'm thinking hard about a new problem every day. Whereas my boss can remember things I did a year ago I can't easily.
Maybe its just you being in the business longer than me, but I've had pretty much the opposite thought: I'm learning new stuff every day, wondering when I will start to actually forget chunks of it. Currently, it seems like most technical knowledge tends to stick in my brain, with no apparent limit yet. I can still recall most of the Redis protocol commands despite not having used it in more than six years.
After almost 20 years as a commercial developer I forget entire projects, entire jobs even. Someone will mention a company name and it takes me a few seconds to realize that the reason the name is familiar is because I briefly worked there 15 years ago. Jobs I held for multiple years are fine but any short stints are a blur.
Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe its just you being in the business longer than me, but I've had pretty much the opposite thought: I'm learning new stuff every day, wondering when I will start to actually forget chunks of it. Currently, it seems like most technical knowledge tends to stick in my brain, with no apparent limit yet. I can still recall most of the Redis protocol commands despite not having used it in more than six years.
After almost 20 years as a commercial developer I forget entire projects, entire jobs even. Someone will mention a company name and it takes me a few seconds to realize that the reason the name is familiar is because I briefly worked there 15 years ago. Jobs I held for multiple years are fine but any short stints are a blur.
I've experienced this as well and the phenomenon is more pronounced if the role/company was unremarkable at the time, and it was as if I overwrote the memory with the excitement of the next job, then rinse and repeat with every new job.
Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#18As a programmer I think I forget a lot because programming keeps my brain busy thinking about things. I forget features and solutions I've done before. I think it's because the space inside the brain is limited. I'm thinking hard about a new problem every day. Whereas my boss can remember things I did a year ago I can't easily.
I find that my brain seems to be very selective about what it copies from "cache" into long-term memory. I think this is the result of decades of splitting my time between two 'modes' of thinking - one where I try to permanently commit some important fact to memory (like how a system works, or what functions it needs, or whatever), and the other where I'm churning through hundreds of pages of documentation trying to find the one particular fact that I need, where everything apart from that fact gets explicitly forgotten as soon as possible to make space for stuff that I actually need to keep.
Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#19I actually think it's much simpler than all of this. I may be extrapolating from my own brain a bit, I'm fairly certain that the brain creates a timeline of the past by running a garbage collection function every night that goes something like: if (memory.timestamp
I think its a bit more complex than that, maybe something like if (memory.timestamp { memory.significance = score; }) }
So if I understand correctly, you are suggesting that the dream playback is used as a way to determine the significance of a memory?
Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe its just you being in the business longer than me, but I've had pretty much the opposite thought: I'm learning new stuff every day, wondering when I will start to actually forget chunks of it. Currently, it seems like most technical knowledge tends to stick in my brain, with no apparent limit yet. I can still recall most of the Redis protocol commands despite not having used it in more than six years.
After almost 20 years as a commercial developer I forget entire projects, entire jobs even. Someone will mention a company name and it takes me a few seconds to realize that the reason the name is familiar is because I briefly worked there 15 years ago. Jobs I held for multiple years are fine but any short stints are a blur.
I suspected that would probably happen someday (I'm 24). Do you notice this effect with your private life too? Forgotten relationships, appartments, vacations, etc?