Perfect Memory

[Gulpin]

Scientists have found a number of people who have a 'perfect memory.' You can say a date and they can tell you the weather, what day it was on, and what they did throughout that day. It has been dubbed 'superior autobiographical memory' and is such a new discovery it hasn't even hit medical textbooks yet. MRI's show that this memory may be related to OCD, as all of the subjects have OCD like behavior and organize the memories of every day in their head.

Do you think having a perfect memory would be a blessing or a curse?

Would you like a perfect memory - remebering everything good and bad that has ever happened to you?

Discuss.

Full Article:

https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/19/60minutes/main20071071.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

 

[Katja]

Wow that's interesting. I would probably not like to, seeing as my childhood was...traumatic. I'd rather be a normal person than have everything organized like a computer.

 

[Distorted Personality]

Yeah I was about to mention it being OCD when i saw the burb you get when you hover over threads .. then I saw the rest of what you wrote.

From what i've seen from medical dramas, it is most certainly a form of OCD.

And a perfect memory would cause you to never get over the past. It would be a horrible curse > <

 

[Shizz]

Now if only these people lived for at least three thousand years would it be of use....

SO MUCH HISTORY!

 

[Palkia]

My memory is atrocious, so I would love a perfect memory. I might remember things that not very nice though. :/ I think it's a blessing to have a memory that doesn't suck like mine though.

 

[Elixir]

To me it sounds like it could be a very useful ability, being able to recall everything. Imagine that - you would barely need to study for tests and stuff like that.

It could also be painful though, if you did something that made you guilty, saw something you didn't want to see or had a traumatic experience that you really would like to forget.

 

[Musician of Literature]

I'd love having a perfect memory.

The reason for this is because I could remember stuff besides facts for tests. I'm good at that, but when it comes to remembering directions... epic fail.

 

[Dawn]

Perfect memory? Oh boy. Let me whip out and quote a very specific passage from one of my favorite websites about this.

Let's look at the brain like it's a computer. It has a really fast processor and almost unlimited storage space. But it also has a very unique and often inconvenient filing system. It's less like the directories you have on your hard drive and more like the results you get back from a search engine.

Your brain makes memories accessible by creating links to other memories, with all those links to each memory sorted by relevance (based on similarity and how emotional you were when the event happened).

So a memory is only accessible by opening one of the other memories that the brain arbitrarily linked to it, or by inputting the same information again (that is, somebody reminds you). Otherwise, it's gone forever. That's why you can forget about an appointment, but when reminded suddenly slap your forehead and say, "Oh, right!" with all the details suddenly spilling back into your mind. The appointment didn't get deleted, the link just got broken.

So with somebody like Jill, her perfect memory of decades of personal minutiae is thought to be the result of an obsessive/compulsive dwelling on and refreshing of those memories... at the expense of everything else. Like the people who were trained to remember those strings of digits, she "trained" herself to remember years of unimportant stuff. But your brain forgets that unimportant stuff for a reason: so it can prioritize the important stuff ahead of it.

So yeah. "Perfect memory" sounds a bit more like a horrible, horrible mental dysfunction to me. In fact, aforementioned Jill suffers from constant depression. Not my idea of a happy life.

 

[Cariad]

Wow that's interesting. I would probably not like to, seeing as my childhood was...traumatic. I'd rather be a normal person than have everything organized like a computer.

I agree with everything. But my childhood isnt traumatic.

I have a fine memory, and I have no wish for a perfect one.

 

[Alice]

I have an above average memory as it is... and I'd like to stay normal, if possible, so no. I'm fine with the way it is now.

(When I say above average, I mean that I remember important things months after other people, but I don't remember everything... like, in English class last year, we read half of a book at the beginning of the year, and then finished it at the end of the year, and I was literally the only person in the class who remembered any of it... and I actually did remember the entire thing, as if I had just read it.)

 

[~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~]

They must be some very lucky people. Anyways.


Do you think having a perfect memory would be a blessing or a curse?
It has to be in the middle. The bad side about that is usually I tend to forget certain things that I dont ever want to remember, but with these people, they will remember it forever. The good side is when it comes to exams, they will do very well (I so wish I was like that all the time and not most of the time)

Would you like a perfect memory - remembering everything good and bad that has ever happened to you?
Looking at it in both a positive and negative way, I don't think I would want it . I am happy with my memory capacity as of now because it is not in any shape or form low


:t354:TG

 

[Azonic]

If some memory is that bad or traumatic enough, then you'd probably remember it anyways even without perfect memory lol.

I'd say yes. Photographic memory = straight As lololol

 

[Myles]

If it really is on the OCD spectrum, then as an anxiety disorder it would be torturous to have. Although I have heard of a memory hoarding type of OCD, the way this article presents it is less than convincing. Their evidence for an OCD link is anecdotal.

 

[Steven]

I think having a perfect memory would make it hard to forgive people for the wrongs they have done because you never forget them. :/

 

[cazzler]

I think having a perfect memory would make it hard to forgive people for the wrongs they have done because you never forget them. :/

Right, you can't 'forgive and forget'
I wouldn't want to have it, since it's better that way basically...

 

[Asrossk]

Whilst it would arguably help with exams, it would not be a totally beneficial thing to have. If you saw a scary film or something, your memory of it would not fade with time. Also, a lot of the things people remember with perfect memory are not really useful, such as the weather on a specific day.

The huge negative to perfect memory is if you witnessed a traumatic incident, you would always have a clear memory of it. This is horrific in itself for the person, as your mind would not be able to forget this in self defence. I reckon it could be enough of a burden to drive someone to depression.

Perfect memory, just like all things, has its positives and negatives. It's a neat thing to have, but it can completely backfire in a bad situation.

 

[Myles]

Well actually as it is the mind is more likely to remember traumatic events more than normal events so that we can avoid them (e.g. it makes us scared of situations that are similar to it). Repressed memories are very rare.