• Do we live by memories?
    47 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Jo The Shmo;34033187]keep in mind memory pretty much describes all though and sensory information in your brain. It's not just the traditional "memory" that we are used to talking about. for example, your sensory memory is made up of pretty much every sensory detail that's currently being picked up by any of your 5 senses your working memory is pretty much your active train of thought, or anything that you're currently focused on so yes, we do live in memory, but that doesn't necessarily mean we live in the past. don't think of memory as the past, because that's not entirely correct[/QUOTE] well, memory can't be the past because the past doesn't exist anymore it's a representation of the past, like the vomit stains on your car's passenger floor mat
[QUOTE=Dark RaveN;33962844]I thought this topic wasn't enough for Mass Debate, but this is just my theory. Did you ever think how do you live your life? It was a dark and lonely night in my apartment, when I just couldn't sleep. And then I thought - Do we actually live our lives in real time or are we actually just remembering this? Just come to think of it - Can you really be sure you lived something through If you can't remember it? It may sound absurd, but really, what if?[/QUOTE] It occured to me a couple of months ago that there is no way to know if your memories are actually being remembered properly (or at all!). It's sort of related to the brain in a vat thought experiment. Everything that happened before I typed this message could've never happened at all. There's no way to know for sure! nothingisreal.jpg
[QUOTE=zzzz;33962852]Even more interesting is the idea that, when you see something, when you feel something, it takes a slight time for the information to make it to your brain and for your brain to process it. So you really live your whole life with a slight delay compared to when everything you experience actually happens[/QUOTE] Our nervous system is unable to send signals in an instant. Actually it is pretty damn fast but it takes some time. Although I am not sure if I understood your post.
Billy Pilgrim says hello.
Our whole life consists of memories. I only have one problem with that. Some of us more often, some of us rarely, but we all have false memories from times to times. Has anyone ever had some weird images popping up in your head, which you could not explain or even tell if they were the memories or just something your brain made up, perhaps in your sleep? Can you, without any doubt, say what's real and what's not? Only a fool can be certain in anything like this. But also, by human standarts, the ones who cannot tell what is reality and what is not, are delusional schizophrenics, madmen. In any case, to answer the question, yes, we do live by our memories, false or not. Basically everything we experience or believe to have experienced, is merely a memory, if you think about it. These memories trigger some processes in our organisms, and we feel different feelings, and what not. I'm done.
[QUOTE=zzzz;33962852]Even more interesting is the idea that, when you see something, when you feel something, it takes a slight time for the information to make it to your brain and for your brain to process it. So you really live your whole life with a slight delay compared to when everything you experience actually happens[/QUOTE] yeah but the lag won't really matter I've thought of this before, and yes we do, empiric knowledge is based on the fact that we remember the experiences we've had, in the past. Fish have very short memory span, very short, so they are rediscovering everything all the time forever.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;34043579]well, memory can't be the past because the past doesn't exist anymore it's a representation of the past, like the vomit stains on your car's passenger floor mat[/QUOTE] But what I'm saying is that its not just a representation of the past memory also refers to pretty much everything that's currently going on in your brain
[QUOTE=Jo The Shmo;34047329]But what I'm saying is that its not just a representation of the past memory also refers to pretty much everything that's currently going on in your brain[/QUOTE] what about thinking I know in any situation your brain is referring back to its memories to see if it has any applicable knowledge but the actual process of that happening can't be a memory seems there would also be a rather large part processing current stimuli
The way I always thought of it was that this is all our lives flashing before our eyes and in fact we're on the brink of death, but with this theory we're on a "set path" which will always end up with death. So, it really doesn't matter if we're reliving a memory or not.. Just make sure at some point during your memory that you live your life so that you have great memories later on.
What I also find interesting about this is that plenty of our memories never happened or didn't happen the way we think they did. Normal healthy people hallucinate from time to time, it's just we never catch it. That deer you saw while in the car passing by a field may have never been there. Some of the people on the street while you're walking might have been entirely imagined and not real at all. I can't help but feel it's because of the elusive nature of memory that we don't notice. Because they didn't talk to you or interact with you in any way, it allows for you brain to go "Okay, nothing is there... or... was there?" and then all of the sudden in your memory you vividly picture something and you go "Oh, that's right, that was there!" even though it wasn't. This stuff can happen within seconds, which is why the concept of living as a memory is interesting (at least to me). How much of the past is imagined? Did I really get that grade on the SATs? And if you think about it, how do you really know that childhood friend you had wasn't actually imaginary? Like when you tell somebody else about something and they just assume "I must not remember it.". What if it never really happened? In some cases people have found this to be true. They aren't schizophrenic or schizotypal or anything, but they were rather legitimately hallucinating or their memory had a little glitch. I also remember reading about how imagination has a link to memory, and that parts (if not gigantic portions) of our memories are how we imagine the events to be instead of how they really happened. Let's say you felt somebody was mad at you, but they actually weren't. You might remember them glaring at you when in actuality they just looked over expressionlessly. Our emotions and our imaginations shape our memory, which is also probably why people need repeated training for things like remembering lyrics of songs. You "could have sworn" that X sung Y, but after reading the lyrics you hear them say it correctly after a long time (possibly even years) of hearing them say something that they weren't even close to saying. I, myself, lose memories entirely sometimes, and I'm too young for it to be Alzheimer's or something like that. And I lose them about oddly specific things. There aren't huge holes, just little details that seem to have slipped. Like in my neighbor's yard I can vividly imagine their house, their garage, their hill, but one day when my mom was driving me home from school I went "... Was that tree always there?". To this day I still have no idea why I don't remember my neighbor's yard ever having trees. I can look back in my memory and see exactly when the trees "appeared" in their yard. It's like a permanent "jamais vu". I think it relates to the discussion because if anybody had asked me before I'd noticed, I would have said my neighbor's yard had no trees and my memory would be 100% sure of that. I try not to get too hooked up on this stuff, because trekking the sea of extraneous "What if?"s is a grim and lonely journey.
[QUOTE] [B]I try not to get too hooked up on this stuff, because trekking the sea of extraneous "What if?"s is a grim and lonely journey.[/B] [/QUOTE] Well, that's why there's forums n'such like Facepunch to share ones ideals in order to not be alone in your journey to enlightenment. :eng101:
[QUOTE=Mechwarrior;34047576]Well, that's why there's forums n'such like Facepunch to share ones ideals in order to not be alone in your journey to enlightenment. :eng101:[/QUOTE] Or for us all to get lost together. :v:
[QUOTE=Zeke129;34047410]what about thinking I know in any situation your brain is referring back to its memories to see if it has any applicable knowledge but the actual process of that happening can't be a memory seems there would also be a rather large part processing current stimuli[/QUOTE] thinking is what your working memory is. the "referring back to its memories" would be your long term memory
I don't remember clicking on this thread, yet it's in my read threads column with 33 new posts
I live for a brighter future!
I think when it comes to remembering and living, there's three states of mind that you're in at any time - you're either living it, when you're not really thinking about the past; remembering it, when you're not really living it, and a sort of half-way mark, where you're either living a moment and trying to use information you've gathered from the past to make sense of a situation, or if you're remembering something, but you're in a position where your body is essentially on auto-pilot, where you have to do something, but you're focussing mainly on your memories. Or something. Because I can remember doing stuff without thinking really hard about what I'm doing, and can also remember times when I've been remembering stuff, mostly sat in bed, doing fuck all.
Does it matter? You still have to do certain things. If you don't shit hits the fan... Stuff like this doesn't really affect the way the society works.
[QUOTE=papu2;34059629]Does it matter? You still have to do certain things. If you don't shit hits the fan... Stuff like this doesn't really affect the way the society works.[/QUOTE] So? Black holes don't necessarily affect society, yet it's still interesting to learn about them.
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