http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reminiscence_bump

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^That's really interesting, and exactly it. I wish there wasn't a bump.

The human mind certainly has the capacity to remember everything that's ever happened to a person, it's just that very few people are able to, and the majority of those who are capable of this have other kinds of "restrictions". Savant autism is one example of this. I wonder if medical science will ever be capable of "modifying" the human mind to be able to utilize its full potential. And perhaps more importantly; would this really be preferable?

And life wouldn't have much meaning without death, dag. In my way of thinking the two more or less define eachother, as opposing natural phenomenons usually do. Not to mention that the human race would run out of space and resources if everyone could live to be, say, 10,000 years as you said. I guess we'd have to migrate to another planet and use up its resources too. A virus with shoes, that's all we are after all.

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You are right, we would need to migrate to other planets - and I would expect that. But why do we have to think of ourselves as a virus? I hope that if we live up to 10K years, we'll get past the self-loathing that defines so much of life. When I hit 1,000 years- I expcect to be making confident, noble decisions that are good for the environment and my fellow humans.

He mentioned me! He mentioned me!

I like your optimism, dag . But as I always like to point out; a pessimist is just a well-informed optimist.

And here are some words to think about as one gets older:


Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

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I read too much SF, but my mind is bent enough to think that we have to question the things we take to be "normal" or accepted parts of life. Robert Heinlein played with the concept of incest in some of his stories - that's not my thing - but I do enjoy the perversion of immortality. It's coming folks - here's hoping that it's not just bought up by the rich - and we're all soylent green.

i've lived for a mere 30 years but last week, for a period lasting approximately an hour, i forgot my middle name.

that's fucked up.

What's the moral objection to thinking of humanity as a virus? A virus isn't inherently evil. It just isn't very apt description of human reproduction and behavior.

I only hope that one day soon people can get together enough to save humanity by having 'back-ups' on other worlds/space colonies. We owe it to ourselves and others who have wanted to know 'Why everything?'.

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^exactly. And population and resource issues become very different when you are talking about the vastness of space. It would take a long time to use up all the resources in the Oort cloud. That's why the Heechees put the food factory there.

I plan to reinforce my brain with nanoprobes or external ram, so this won't be a problem. At some point we have to forgo our soft, human bodies. Gonna enjoy it for a while first though.

Happy birthday Dag.

Are you officially back yet?

So far you've sucked at taking time off.

Re: Recency effect: "The overrepresentation of recent personal events (last 5 years)."

I've often thought that working 1 year at 60 hours a week compared with 1.5 years at 40 hours a week doesn't yield the same results, for a variety of reasons.

The recency effect seems to be a good description of one of those reasons. We can live fuller mental lives if we take in more information over a shorter period of our lives, since natural memory loss is at least partially dependent on time, rather than quantity of information.

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>> ^Edeot:
Are you officially back yet?
So far you've sucked at taking time off.


I definitely took 4 days off - which is epochs in Sift time.

^ See, you're already experiencing geologic time.

The future is closer than you think.

>> ^dag:
I definitely took 4 days off - which is epochs in Sift time.

Your comment history suggests you didn't even spend 36 hours away.

Might I suggest some heroin to ease yourself out of this horrible addiction.

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Just remember, if I ever quit VideoSift - I'm taking you all down with me.

>> ^Edeot:
>> ^dag:
I definitely took 4 days off - which is epochs in Sift time.

Your comment history suggests you didn't even spend 36 hours away.
Might I suggest some heroin to ease yourself out of this horrible addiction.