by scotthtaylor on 10/28/20, 11:58 AM with 162 comments
by sixdimensional on 10/28/20, 2:43 PM
Ever since then, I have told many people and thought to myself many times, that tools, take Google for instance (search and indexing), knowledge management systems (Wiki and other techniques) - these are all extensions of our brains.
We evolve with technology, and it evolves with us. We might be losing our ability to remember, but if it is because we don’t “need” to remember because technology has augmented us... Well, this is why I also am fond of telling people that I have a difficult time separating technology from nature. Even though the two don’t seem like the same thing, technology too becomes part of the natural ecosystem as organisms invent and rely on it.
Also, another way of thinking about this is, maybe the ability to recall small detailed facts was evolutionarily less important than building models in our brains. So, we offloaded recording small facts, while I think we still ingest and build/train our neural nets just fine in our brains.
Then the only problem I see is, if life becomes all about mental models, when our ability to form new mental models degrades with age, what then? Especially with the rate of technological change, I do see a real likelihood that old mental models get left behind and without the ability to adapt, organisms (i.e.) us could be hosed.
Edit: ..and the last sentence could be why the big push for AI and machine learning too - to ensure the models get encoded into the technology too... and be discovered faster, changed more fluidly, etc. Another evolutionary tool.
by spicymaki on 10/28/20, 1:46 PM
I find myself not only forgetting myriad facts and figures, but also mixing up information or having false memories. Many of my memories have nothing to anchor on.
I think the trend today is to prime the brain with content depending on the context. E.g. before giving a talk, an engineering meeting or leading a training session you can use flash cards to warm up the cache and strategically dump what is not important to remember.
Not exactly sure how I feel about that.
by franze on 10/28/20, 3:46 PM
* How often did you Google this week?
* What was the last thing before the last thing that you Googled?
Later, I shoot another question:
* What is the last thing you read, that you googled before, top to bottom?
The use case I optimize websites for is:
* Users do not know when they Google.
* Users do not know what they Google.
* Google is an extension of their thinking.
* They do not read what they find.
* It just need to move them forward in a way.
by jraph on 10/28/20, 1:25 PM
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 probably memorize it anyway.
Lack of focus leading to not remembering the content of a meeting is problematic though. I don't have this issue fortunately.
by Swizec on 10/28/20, 1:20 PM
by Daynil on 10/28/20, 2:28 PM
If you feel your memory is limited in an area you do value instant recall that doesn't inherently produce regular repetition, there are ways to steer your long term memory consolidation. For example, you can train yourself to remember everyone's names when you meet them, if you value that. If you don't value it or put any particular effort into training it, there's no reason to think you've gone senile if you forget the name of most people you meet the first few times.
For most things, I think the second brain solution is ideal. You value something enough to want to be able to recall it at a moment's notice, but you don't have any real need to instantly recall it without reference. We're not taking closed book exams outside of school [1]. This is where all the Zoom notes and book quotes are placed, where you can further digest, interpret and later recall them if and when they become relevant.
[1] https://fortelabs.co/blog/knowledge-building-blocks-the-new-...
by montalbano on 10/28/20, 1:18 PM
Frances Yates - The Art of Memory,
and the one I'm planning to read next:
Mary Carruthers - The Book of Memory.
One of the most interesting aspects for me is how the concept of memory in the middle ages was much more closely associated (sometimes conflated) with imagination than it is now. Most people I know now would consider memory and imagination as two quite distinct mental faculties.
by shrugthug on 10/28/20, 2:29 PM
https://www.amazon.com/Shallows-What-Internet-Doing-Brains/d...
by Pt_ on 10/28/20, 1:31 PM
Zoom and the like is far from natural and I find myself searching for words during sentences that I know I would not have in the past.
by zxcvbn4038 on 10/28/20, 3:55 PM
by cmrdporcupine on 10/28/20, 2:14 PM
Kids in school are already struggling with these things. What happens when every child is walking around with facts available instantly and constantly, but no context to manage it?
by driven20 on 10/28/20, 2:01 PM
by coldpie on 10/28/20, 1:44 PM
by Grimm1 on 10/28/20, 2:36 PM
Except it's fairly normal under stress for people's memory to function more poorly and since we're experiencing a Global pandemic that has completely up ended our normal mode of living I would expect baseline stress for almost every one to be up considerably.
So that's my hypothesis, which requires less assumptions than "people are losing the ability to remember because of computers" but doesn't result in a blog post where I can talk about Anki or equivalents.
by jfengel on 10/28/20, 1:10 PM
by Terretta on 10/28/20, 1:21 PM
// This loss of ability to remember is real and personal. To combat it, once a year, I undertake a two to three week digital detox. No devices, no media, only long form traditional books. Takes a week to overcome agitation from not being able to “consume” digital micro-info-bursts on demand. Following that, my brain begins to restore its ability to build and maintain concepts, built up like Jenga towers or houses of cards while reading. That ability remains until I get lazy, quit taking notes by hand and go back to digital.
by tannhaeuser on 10/28/20, 3:51 PM
by hateful on 10/28/20, 3:15 PM
And it's not just memory, but the processing or "thinking" of that memory. Let's take just one sense, sight, for our example.
When you see something, eventually the signal gets to your "conscious" mind (also, there is a slight delay as your brain processes things). But at the same time that information is processed by the "recognization" part of your brain which will eventually store that information, also, in long term memory. There are a few interesting facts about this that I've seen:
1. there are people who are blind, but not because their eyes are damaged, but because the connection is severed to their "conscious". But their "recognization" connection is still intact. Because of this, even though they can't see, they can recognize faces and even stop before running into a wall. This is because the regognization happens even though you're not consciously aware of it. Something like face blindness is (probably) the opposite. 2. When you're in a parking lot looking for your car and you see your friend, you won't recognize them - this is because the "recognization" processing is only single threaded! 3. You can recognize someone you know from much further than you can make out their face consciously. 4. Recognization looks for very complex patterns - especially faces. Just ask yourself "how" you tell one face from another? That feeling of being being watched may be just that there's something face like in the environment. 5. The recognization will store its information and your conscious mind will look for it where its stored but they don't talk directedly!. So, again, when you see something, that information is sent to both places. But sometimes, especially if you have a chemical issue (e.g. serotonin) (even just a minor issue for that moment, not necessarily a big issue), the recognization process will be fast but the conscious process will be slow. So the recognization will store it, then the conscious brain will check to see if it's stored - and it's there! So your con
by tzs on 10/28/20, 4:54 PM
For example, I've looked up numerous PHP functions on www.php.net, numerous Python functions on docs.python.org, numerous Perl modules on metacpan.org or with the perldoc command, and numerous JavaScript functions on MDN.
It would be neat if there was something that could automatically note what I've looked up, and turn that into flash cards for use with something like Anki.
by httpz on 10/28/20, 1:47 PM
by suyash on 10/28/20, 4:47 PM
by davidtranjs on 10/28/20, 1:26 PM
by rodolphoarruda on 10/28/20, 3:03 PM
I humbling say my exobrain is Evernote as I throw a lot of thing in there after adding some tags. I'm fast approaching the 3000 item mark, which is interesting because I'm gradually losing the capacity to find things as I can't remember what's in there to be searched/found. Day to day things like receipt photos are in some way at the top of my mind, but unique events from past years may be forever buried in there.
Another evidence: I saved an article from 2017 just to find out days later when I searched for its title that I had actually saved the same article back in 2017.
Well, I can't even imagine how this second brain will be like in 2027.
by osrec on 10/28/20, 11:05 PM
I guess smartphones may further reduce what we need to commit to memory, which will probably have some implications in terms of neuro-plasticity - i.e. it may well shrink (or at least change) parts of our brains.
by tmaly on 10/28/20, 3:34 PM
I think as technology evolves, we may see a better version of this idea. The ultimate version of this would be what Connor Macleod is gifted at the end of Highlander 2.
He has this ability to see people's thoughts and help them work together to solve huge problems in the world.
We have lots of chat apps that give us instant communication, but it is not very organized or easy to search like the idea of direct access to someone's thoughts.
by ch33zer on 10/28/20, 7:34 PM
by ehnto on 10/28/20, 3:00 PM
It's like my brain realises I am intending to go back and read the string 2 numbers at a time, over and over again, so it doesn't bother remembering. But if I just read it out once and don't think about it until I need to recall it, my brain has the information available for me.
by therealx on 10/28/20, 2:52 PM
I do review certain things I want to remember in my downtime, but I don't think that is somehow inherently changing some larger picture like my information consumption.
Semi-related, do you guys tend to get headaches after long information binges?
by op03 on 10/28/20, 2:00 PM
by mncharity on 10/28/20, 1:46 PM
by titzer on 10/29/20, 1:35 AM
Names, grey deeds, dire events, rebellions,
Majesties, sovereign voices, agonies,
Creations and destroyings all at once
Pour into the wide hollows of my brain
and deify me,
as if some blithe wine or bright elixir
Peerless I had drunk,
and so became immortal.
- Keats, from memory.
edit: Ok, I had to double check and I made a mistake!
by durandal1 on 10/28/20, 4:48 PM
* Lack of sleep * Stress * Age
Usually all three hit at once, as our career peaks in intensity around our late 30s, while also having kids.
by karmakaze on 10/28/20, 4:06 PM
I am concerned that people seem increasingly unable to draw coherent conclusions.
by ikeboy on 10/28/20, 3:32 PM
by oregontechninja on 10/28/20, 3:31 PM
by klmadfejno on 10/28/20, 1:31 PM
by spcebar on 10/28/20, 9:42 PM
by Lazlo182 on 10/28/20, 1:31 PM
by yanis_t on 10/28/20, 1:37 PM
Is this really a problem if you think about it from the standpoint of human evolution?
by fridgamarator on 10/28/20, 1:36 PM