Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
One insight from my worsened memory in recent years (whether a Covid after effect ot aging or something more ominous) is how clear the link between emotions and memory is. Things that never evoked any emotion are most easily forgotten. I used to think strong emotions reinforce the associated memories. Now I think all memories are intrinsically sentimental. If you could truly care about nothing you’d have true amnesia. Identity is memory is temporally coherent sentiment history. People with very strong but not eidetic memories simply have a high baseline of caring mildly about almost everyone and everything in the world. My mom is one such person (in her 80s she still remembers like a hundred plus birthdays of extended family members; it’s her freak superpower). I used to have a strong general knowledge memory of history, science etc, but not for personal info.
6 replies
2 recasts
26 reactions

Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
You are the sum of all the emotions you have felt so far
2 replies
1 recast
13 reactions

Dan Finlay 🦊 pfp
Dan Finlay 🦊
@danfinlay
I don't know how big a self-experimenter you are, but this seems like a pretty safe protocol, and I think is a promising therapy for preserving memory (and I wish you maximal brain function): https://warpcast.com/danfinlay/0x095d1c73 About $150 to try: https://tensunits.com/collections/ultrasound/products/us-pro-2000-portable-ultrasound-unit
1 reply
0 recast
2 reactions

Galen @Gnosis 🦉 pfp
Galen @Gnosis 🦉
@galen
Reading through SoP, seeing so many Frances Yates ‘Art of Memory’ pieces, I can’t help but observe that the teacher’s trauma has inflected the coursework.
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction

Sachin pfp
Sachin
@sach
I enjoy a lot of fiction that is based around emotion and memory - proust, Lydia Davis, Sebald etc come to mind. You might like Sebald since it’s semi fictional, mixing fiction and memory
0 reply
0 recast
1 reaction

Garrett  pfp
Garrett
@garrett
makes sense anecdotally this seems true for me too
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction

_slow_crypto 🌅⏳🪁 pfp
_slow_crypto 🌅⏳🪁
@slowcrypto
@deficlinpsy thoughts?
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction