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Are we losing our ability to remember?

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Re: Are we losing our ability to remember?

#21

Post by noir_lord »

taneq wrote: post #14
jraph wrote: post #7

> So I wouldn’t say we are losing our ability to remember, as I posed at the start of this post. I think people (me included) just don’t do enough work to move stuff from our working memory into our long-term memory. I'd say we could be better at remembering that some piece of information exists and where to find it instead of having to memorize it. This seems more powerful. And for things you do often, you will prob…

Yep, I've found I'm less effective at remembering fully detailed information but more effective at remembering 'bread crumbs' which let me quickly find the information in documentation or online. It's sort of like I store the index internally and the data table externally.

I don't think that is unusual.

I also don't try hard to memorise things I know I can trivially lookup.

Other things I have a directory called `useful_things` that has markdown files broken down by category I can quickly grep for that thing I remember I needed but not how to do.

Re: Are we losing our ability to remember?

#22

Post by throwaway3699 »

mc32 wrote: post #9
Swizec wrote: post #4

Wasn’t there a Greek philosopher who lamented how the youngs are losing their ability to remember because this newfangled invention called “writing” is making them lazy?

True but slippery slope and all. We need some basic ability lest we devolve control to things not us. We should still be able to get by without technology in emergency situations (natural events causing power outages, etc). We should not be rendered helpless.

Remember that fire was also a technology at one point. Our species is sustained by technology and there's no going back. There's always going to be some baseline we can't live without.

Re: Are we losing our ability to remember?

#23

Post by shawxe »

Cactus2018 wrote: post #15
Swizec wrote: post #4

Wasn’t there a Greek philosopher who lamented how the youngs are losing their ability to remember because this newfangled invention called “writing” is making them lazy?

Plato's Phaedrus (c. 360 B.C.E.) > ... If men learn [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written ... http://www.umich.edu/~lsarth/filecabinet/PlatoOnWriting.html

The irony of reading this, over two thousand years later, translated into a different language, presumably by someone who is, even after all this time, still able to read the original--it's almost like writing helps us remember, as a species, in ways that would have otherwise been almost completely impossible.

Re: Are we losing our ability to remember?

#24

Post by in3d »

Swizec wrote: post #4

Wasn’t there a Greek philosopher who lamented how the youngs are losing their ability to remember because this newfangled invention called “writing” is making them lazy?

How do you know he wasn’t right and writing indeed worsened our memory? Maybe you’d remember who it was if not for knowing it is written down somewhere.

Re: Are we losing our ability to remember?

#25

Post by inatreecrown2 »

jraph wrote: post #7

> So I wouldn’t say we are losing our ability to remember, as I posed at the start of this post. I think people (me included) just don’t do enough work to move stuff from our working memory into our long-term memory. I'd say we could be better at remembering that some piece of information exists and where to find it instead of having to memorize it. This seems more powerful. And for things you do often, you will prob…

you just described pointers and RAM :-)

Re: Are we losing our ability to remember?

#26

Post by drdeadringer »

jraph wrote: post #7

> So I wouldn’t say we are losing our ability to remember, as I posed at the start of this post. I think people (me included) just don’t do enough work to move stuff from our working memory into our long-term memory. I'd say we could be better at remembering that some piece of information exists and where to find it instead of having to memorize it. This seems more powerful. And for things you do often, you will prob…

> I'd say we could be better at remembering that some piece of information exists and where to find it instead of having to memorize it. This seems more powerful.

[paraphrase] "I wrote it down so I don't HAVE to remember." --quote from Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade

Seems similar to Einstein's "Never memorize what you can look up.".

Re: Are we losing our ability to remember?

#28

Post by [deleted] »

shawxe wrote: post #23
Cactus2018 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plato's Phaedrus (c. 360 B.C.E.) > ... If men learn [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written ... http://www.umich.edu/~lsarth/filecabinet/PlatoOnWriting.html

The irony of reading this, over two thousand years later, translated into a different language, presumably by someone who is, even after all this time, still able to read the original--it's almost like writing helps us remember, as a species, in ways that would have otherwise been almost completely impossible.

[deleted]

Re: Are we losing our ability to remember?

#30

Post by Loughla »

taneq wrote: post #14
jraph wrote: post #7

> So I wouldn’t say we are losing our ability to remember, as I posed at the start of this post. I think people (me included) just don’t do enough work to move stuff from our working memory into our long-term memory. I'd say we could be better at remembering that some piece of information exists and where to find it instead of having to memorize it. This seems more powerful. And for things you do often, you will prob…

Yep, I've found I'm less effective at remembering fully detailed information but more effective at remembering 'bread crumbs' which let me quickly find the information in documentation or online. It's sort of like I store the index internally and the data table externally.

This is also something I've found when hiring. If the position is time sensitive - the fires being put out tend to have a In my experience, older employees are able to recall information to solve a problem, but the recall may be incomplete, leading to a quicker, but less effective solution. Whereas, younger employees often need more time because they don't specifically remember solutions, but they are able to find, categorize, and process information faster, often leading to a slower, but more complete and robust solution.

Not sure if it's a product of education and upbringing in different worlds, or a product of experience, but it's fascinating to me.

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