I was just thinking again, as usuall

So... everything you do is stored in your memory, much like a computer will store information on memory stick. Some of that memory will be remembered for a long time (like putting information on a floppy disk), but then later can be forgotten (bad floppy disk...). But, why can some things be remember and others, not?

I can remember about 12 years ago, I was at a friend's house, and I can remember a conversation I had (even though I was about 6). Now, this conversation has no realivence to anything, and did nothing spectacular. I did see my friend again, and still do. It's not like that was the last time I saw him, or the first time I remember seeing him. But, either way, I still remember that day and the conversation we had.

Now, it's stated that some things you remember are either special or important, or just something you'll remember... but why? Even if you don't choose to remember something un-important and you won't ever need to remember again, you still remember some things...

Why?

Um it could be pure chance. Say a few days later, you thought about, while not recollecting any other events that took place that day. In 6 months all data about that day (except the convo which was refreshed) will be wiped out. Say it struck you again later. A few years later, everything in that period of time xcept that convo is forgotten.

What if you never think about that day again, yet somewhere a few years down the road, you just randomly remember what happened?

I think it may not just be how important the event was but your surroundings/environment. Also, it may not seem important to when it may be, you just don't recognize the importance of it because it's buried in the subconscious. When you reminisce (thx tinySpell... you're my best friend) about it you may bring it out, kind of like hypnosis.

I still remember a dream I had 7-9 years ago (although very little) where a witch jumped through the window followed by a dog. It made absolutely no sense at the time and it still doesn't... it was a dream afterall. Although, for me to remember some of it at least to this day is amazing. It must have been something emotional I was trying to get out manifested into a symbolic thing.

I don't think I think very much (cyclical) but I do like analyzing other peoples' ideas. It's so fun...

I posted in another thread about memories and have in the few minutes since had some more thoughts so I shall post them here and combined perhaps some light shall be shed My idea on remembering conversations and dreams is to have a familiar thing like scent if you smell cookies and they smell almost like the ones mom used to bake when you came home from school then you probably will remember a day where she baked you cookies and maybe you felt good about that following that deeper maybe that feeling could couse you to remember how you felt when you brought home that good report card and your mom hugged you and showed your good grades to her freinds you dad all that jazz..... anyway you can remember alot more then you think if you try realy hard and use relational logic...

as if this is thought number 12?

This is the 12th "Serious Scientific THought" I have created... if that's what you mean...

well ill be, didnt even know we had gone this high.

Could we, if we wanted to, remember ANYTHING that we have seen or done, no matter what it is or when it happened?

One word : NO

How come? If we sense something and can remember it for a short time, why can't we remember it forever?

I disagree I think you can remember anything but it takes alot more effort for the little things... lol

Because it would get too complicated! How could you devote so much memory and concenteration to a single task? You would be able to do it for a day or two, but thats all

Yet we only use less than 15% of our total brain capacity... yet you still have doubts?

We don't even understand our own minds completely...

brain capacity need not necessarily equal memory

So yet you still limit the powers of the human brain? I'm not saying that the brain is unlimited in what it can do, but it can do a whole lot more than what we know it can...

"You have to hack your own brain" I love that movie heheheh

Yes, but if we can use only 15%, what about the rest? I mean evolution has never ever created anything to spare, its always given just the bare necessities. We may have the capacity to 'process' more, but we may not have the necessary control, akin to a PC with an AMD 64 running DOS. We may slowly be developing more control, but i dont think that saying we can only use 15% is right, we just arent able to.

Well GTX I believe that Stephen Hawking touched on what you are getting at in one of his lectures. What it is is that when you are born you have full capacity for your brain and as you grow you lose some of the performance so to speak. Maybe you havn't lost that particular memory. Of course i pulled this all out of my ear and have no idea what i'm really talking about. Just giving you a hard time GTX

So, basically, we know everything and can do anything we want with our minds, it's just whether or not we can "unlock" that capability.

And stop pulling things out of your ear. All that ear wax is getting on the boards. I don't want to clean the place like I clean at work (everything would be soaking wet...)

GTX you don't really clean at work no one really works there we all just kinda sit there and get paid for it hehehehe. Besides there is no wax in my ears its all made into candles. hehehe
We gotta throw another lan and test the limits of your brain.

I had a teacher once that, when I discussed this similar question with him, he stated that from birth we know EVERYTHING there is to know to mankind, it's just that we have to "open the doors" to reveal what we know.

How could we possibly 'know' everything?? Doesnt it all have to be leardned rather than unlocked??

It's a theory.

Its a good line from Johny Menmonic kind of a futuristic hackers movie with Keanu Reaves before he was in the matrix... Has alot to do with human memory its a good movie not to be missed

I enter the scene momentarily to halt the incorrect declarations being posted, claiming that we only use 1 or 15 percent of our brains. That is an old, ninteenth century rumor that still circulates in the US (and probably other countries) for no particular reason that I am aware of. We use all 100 percent of our brains, and that is a scientifically proven fact.

All this to say, if you're going to have scientific arguments, make sure you actually know your science and don't expand on disproven wive's tales.

Insidious - RWH

Maybe they refer to the fact that our brains dont develop as much as it can. Maybe 85% more development s not accurate, but im sure you can improve your mental abilities by 10-20% if you really tried, both in memory power and calculative ability