The journalist failed to explain "Laplace transform" part unfortunately. How something like complex variable operation happens in the brain. Most likely the original researchers meant something different.
How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
21–24 of 24 posts
Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I guess something like that is going on in my brain too. The code I come up with often feels exciting because it is a solution to a problem, but then the next several 100 code-solutions overwrite the memory of what once felt important. It is no longer important, so I think it's good my brain let's go of it. But often I lament having not much documented why I wrote some code the way I did
Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#23As 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.
> wondering when I will start to actually forget chunks of it.
When you start forgetting it, you don't notice that. There's no bell ringing indicating now something's gone from your (easily) accessible memory. We are not aware of what we forget :-)
Re: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Yes. Some stick in your memory but others kind of get swept under the carpet.
They are all still in your memory somewhere. A photo, something someone says, or even a smell can cause them to come rushing back. "Holy crap, twenty years ago I went to blah and this happened... I'd forgotten about that."
Think twice before verbalizing similar moments of sudden recall about old relationships with your current partner. "Man, that made me thing of this chick I was seeing for like a month a few years before I met you..." In terms of their appeal as a sexual partner very few 45 year old long term partners like to feel compared to a 22 year old you had a brief fling with.