X-Message-Number: 23807 Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2004 10:13:29 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #23799 - #23805 Hi everyone! I sent Coetzee a private message on memories and how they worked, but he either had already put his thoughts on Cryonet or decided to do so anyway. As readers of PERIASTRON know, memory is one of the major subjects I've been discussing in that newsletter. One of the major results so far of scientific studies of memory has been the discovery (insight, realization) that memories are of at least 2 different kinds and probably more. The kind of memory that turns out to be so labile consists of memories of events or features of events which did not affect us emotionally very strongly... that is, personal events in our own lives. Even in this case particular details, probably because they didn't seem important to us at the time, can be lost or change with time. If taken literally, ALL our memories of events happening to us lasts only for a very short time. That gives us the distinction between immediate events and past events: one kind of memory is that very short term memory telling us what's happening NOW. We also have another kind of memory, in which we remember not personal events but public events. This too can be affected by how involved we were in the events, even if only emotionally. Most Americans older than their early teens probably remember the assassination of President Kennedy (whether they were Democrats or Republicans or Libertarians at the time). Our own values and history play a role in how long such memories are preserved, too. A third kind of memory consists of skills that we have learned, including intellectual skills: riding a bike, waterskying, knitting, working a typewriter or a computer, even the ability to differentiate and integrate functions (notice that I was moving from physical skills to intellectual ones). One of the more important skills is that of speaking our native language. It's not that brain damage cannot wipe out such skills, but that, first, they are stored in different brain areas than the preceding three, and second, we won't normally forget them unless those areas have been physically damaged by either disease, accident, or (in these violent times) acts by someone else. Not only would it impair us to remember literally everything that ever happened to us or in our presence, or at least literally everything of which we were aware at the time had happened to us, but most of such memory would never be of any use afterwards. Yes, we go through the world INTERPRETING what happens, and what it means to us, and try to remember the critical things/events. Does anyone on Cryonet really want to fill up their memories with trivial events? Our brains even have special circuits to FORGET things (forgetting isn't just a reversal of remembering). On the other hand, remembering skills can remain appropriate for a long time, even if the skills change their importance. If you know how to ride a horse then even in this time of autos and helicopters that skill can remain useful, and if not useful, at least fun. Nor would the memory of your native language cease to be useful (think of American Indians in the Second World War, who as soldiers could communicate in their Indian languages and completely defeat any attempts of German decoders to understand what they said). When I went to elementary school and high school, computers were rare and faraway, but we were all required to learn how to type. And now on my computer I can type much more easily, with fewer errors to correct than someone who only tries to write using one finger at a time. And as for differentiation and integration, even if I use a system to do symbolic math, they help me see that something is clearly wrong and there was a slip somewhere (my slip, most likely). That tells me exactly why our memories for skills generally turn out much more durable ... there must be natural selection working on how our brains work, too. We do have memories of events which we value highly. Yes, these can change with time, but not for the crucial features which affected us in these events. If we were ever arrested, the faces of the policemen arresting us normally don't matter. If we're beaten up by those policemen, we'll have very good reason to remember their faces. What we want to remember isn't ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, but that which is important (and yes, that too can change with time). Even though we'd be lost without our memories of events, and lost exponentially without our memories of skills, we aren't just our memories but a large association of memories with feelings, values, ideas, attitudes about and from those memories. I'll even say it's foolish to wish to remember everything that happens around us perfectly: a foolish use of brainpower to remember facts which never will affect us again. And why then do I pay so much attention to memory in PERIASTRON? Simple: right now we don't fully understand how it works in our brains, or even in detail how our brains work. To restore someone badly damaged by suspension, or even badly damaged previously, we'll need to know such things. Moreover, just because we're more than our memories hardly means that if they disappeared our feeling and ideas, inevitably based on our memories, could still continue to exist. Best wishes and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23807