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Decades ago, Robert Heinlein's character Lazarus Long proposed a need to develop a new way of remembering in order to live longer lives without going mad. He suggested that experiences are accumulated in a linear fashion as time progresses, but as the mind assimilates experiences, it also creates creates connections to all other experiences; these connections grow geometrically without limit, quickly using all available resources. As we get older, we first begin to run out of RAM, then later the available disk space begins to diminish and fragment. His brilliant friend Andrew Libby told him that there is a solution, but sadly, Heinlein passed away without writing the book in which Mr. Libby reveals said solution. Perhaps we will never know...
Will Rogers never met me.
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Great story! I wonder what Heinlein had in mind.
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Heinlein was a damn genious and his books are really worth to be read.
I love "Friday" and "The moon is a harsh mistress"
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Very interesting. This aligns with what they know about people with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory - people who can remember everything about their own lives (can remember the shirt they wore on april 7, 1996).
Marilu Henner has HSAM and has written a book about it[^].
One of the things they discovered is that it is very difficult for these people to take action because they have difficult knowing which thing is important since they remember very detail of their lives.
They get caught up on all the minutiae.
Forgetting can be very helpful to weed out the unimportant.
If you really want to read a fantastic book about memory read the book, Moonwalking With Einstein[^].
I read it twice and it is super informative and a lot of fun to learn about how memory works.
It has been a few years since I read it and now remember the book I may go back and read it again.
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People suffering from senile dementia are the most learned of us all. /s
It is possible that a rearrangement of memory that places more emphasis on newly-learned facts is beneficial. I don't see what benefit completely forgetting facts would have.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I'm generally a happy person. My memories are a lot fuzzier than most I assume.
My wife has a fantastic memory. She really has great recall of details. It's her curse. Because with those crisp memories comes the emotion of the events. She remembers slights and traumas as if it it just happened. Generally she is not all that happy.
I remember that Joe Blow treated me like sh*t, not to give him the beifit of the doubt in the future, but the painful emotion of the time is long gone. It hurts when I see my wife relive some painful event. I wish I could help her forget.
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Might actually be the opposite. Your memory might be normal where the wife has 'exceptional' memory.
Memory is one of those things that people assume everyone else has the same. But fairly recently they have documented some very extreme differences.
Since I am aware of this I was in the position to identify this when I was having a conversation with a woman. I was able to pick up that she had an extraordinary ability to recall events in great detail even to the date when it happened. But convincing her that it was in fact unusual was very difficult.
You can read about one case by looking up the actress 'Marilu Henner'. (Keep in mind that stats related to her represent those identified and not necessarily the number that exist.)
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I agree that she is unusual. All jokes about women never forgetting aside.
She is also a super recognizer. She can see a famous face for a brief instance and is confident she knows who it is and is almost always right. She can see a child picture of a famous adult and quickly know who it is.
I am very far from that. I tend to need to hear their voice before I can have a level of confidence. Superman's disguise as Clark Kent would work on me. Change your hair, I probably won't recognize you for a while. I've always been that way. Don't get mugged, I'll be a lousy witness.
I think facial recognition and memory are tied together. She remembers the fine details that make up a face, me not so much unless I really, really, know it.
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Rich Shealer wrote: I tend to need to hear their voice before I can have a level of confidence...She remembers the fine details that make up a face, me not so much unless I really, really, know it.
Mild prosopagnosia is already known in study participants. I suspect given normal human distribution curves that it is far higher than known.
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Hi, Rich,
Are you asking for advice here for a relationship problem ... i'm unclear.
My ex-wife (American, divorced 30 Years ago) was hyper-empathic: over years having to be her therapist exhausted me, a factor led to divorce.
i would distinguish between "crisp memories" and reliving/obsessing negative emotions. If she wants to change that pattern, there are good modern therapies for that.
best wishes, bill (former board-certified therapist)
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
modified 23-Aug-23 2:15am.
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Not asking for advice, just pointing out my experiences with memory. But I would be lying if I said it didn’t cause negative friction at times.
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if you, or she, want to change: there are good modern techniques available: not Freudian, Jungian, Adlerian; check out Cognitive Behavior Therapy[^].
cheers, bill
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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Dunces! Hat stemmed blood. (9)
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Staunched
Anagram of Dunces Hat
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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YAUTuesday.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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i had the privilege of working directly with him when i was on the 4 person skunk-works team that created the proof-of-concept that became Acrobat. He was an inspiration who made everyone ... working insane hours ... feel valued, respected.
from John, and Ivar Sunderland, and Martin Newell, Xerox PARC, Canon ... came desktop publishing and direct action via mouse UI's, vector fonts, and so much more.
![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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You were very fortunate to know him Bill
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I agree. Very fortunate. He was Genius. Many moons ago (late 1970's and early 1980's, if memory serves), I implemented Warnock's hidden line elimination algorithm in a program at Grad school. It was designed to process very large CAD images with extreme detail using dynamic overlays and adaptive image partitioning (3D quad trees with pseudo recursion, written in Fortran). It ran on a Data General Eclipse mini-computer (and later on VAX under VMS). There is an example of the hidden line output used by Richard Feynman in his book "What do you care what other people think?" Pg, 159.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Wordle 793 5/6
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"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Lucky guess 
Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. -Anon
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In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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