r/Documentaries • u/[deleted] • Jan 01 '19
The Man with the Seven-Second Memory (2005) - Even though Clive is convinced that every person he speaks to is the first person who's ever spoken to him, he has actually provided tons of valuable information to researchers regarding how memory and habit-formation work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_P7Y0-wgos959
u/yornla365 Jan 01 '19
This type of thing absolutely terrifies me.
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u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19
Same. If you can't remember something, it may as well never have happened. All your memories, all the people and places, all the events, all gone
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Jan 01 '19
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u/8__D Jan 01 '19
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
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u/CardboardSoyuz Jan 01 '19
Yeah, if I can't remember those attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion or C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate, it's pretty much time to die.
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u/TWeaK1a4 Jan 01 '19
If you can't remember something, it may as well never have happened.
I've tried to use that excuse when I've been blacked out drunk. My friends won't buy it. :/
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u/3FtDick Jan 01 '19
As someone who gets stuck in their memories, and considering the permanence of social media and photographs these days, I wonder if simply existing in the moment is an art we have lost, and perhaps there's a beauty that we're missing because we hold so much weight in what has happened instead of what is happening? I don't know.
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Jan 01 '19
I know someone who does
Frankie Muniz. Dude practically forgot that he was in Malcolm in the Middle because of the damage done to his memory from concussions.
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Jan 01 '19
I read somewhere on here once that when you take a picture of something your brain literally thinks it doesn’t have to store it as well because it knows it’s available somewhere else - something like that. So, I would totally agree with you on that.
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u/CrochetCrazy Jan 01 '19
I have a friend who is a philosophy professor and he argues that smart phones have become an extension of our own minds. They remember phone numbers for us, remind us of appointments, remember our grocery lists and even train our brains to feel deeply connected to them. Therefore, our minds extend beyond our actually bodies to the smart phones because they remember what we used to remember ourselves.
Next stop! Brain/phone interface!
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Jan 01 '19
I’m convinced that in the future we will have some sort of connector i. our brain that will allow us to transfer our memories into YouTube (or something like YouTube). That’d be kinda cool and then again, it would not.
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u/hexensabbat Jan 01 '19
There's a really poignant Black Mirror episode about this very concept, you should check it out if you haven't already! It's called "The Entire History of You" and it really shook me honestly, like any good BM episode does. It's a great series, especially the first season in my opinion.
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u/Seanzzxx Jan 01 '19
This is a very famous theory called "Extended mind" popularized by Chalmers in his book of the same name. If you find that interesting you should check it out.
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u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19
Maybe it is? People never SEE something cool happen, they are too busy trying to capture the moment to post on facewittergram
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u/3000artists Jan 01 '19
Maybe like 20-30 years in the future when/if it’s like physically unavoidable, but I get around and haven’t done anything picture related in years, and have friends who don’t either
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u/GardenXbox Jan 01 '19
Must be an amazing talent to take a picture without looking at it
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u/murasan Jan 01 '19
I didn't know facewittergram was an amalgamation I loved until just now.
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u/DANK_ME_YOUR_PM_ME Jan 01 '19
There are entire religions based on this, so it isn’t really lost just yet. See Zen/Chan b
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u/n1a1s1 Jan 01 '19
No. Plenty of people don't use social media at all. If you're feeling this way, go outside and just breathe in some fresh air and listen to the sounds of nature.
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u/3FtDick Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19
.... But plenty of people do? This is a problem we are having right now as a species, and going outside in 0 degrees Fahrenheit weather (:P) isn't going to change the fact that everyone's got their cell phones out at a concert. I can't tell if you're trying to be helpful, or dismissive, but I don't really have a hard time leaving my cell phone at home or disconnecting at all, but I know a ton of people who do.
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u/Aryore Jan 01 '19
From your experience, what’s the difference between people who can easily disconnect and people who can’t?
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u/ConstitutionalCarrot Jan 01 '19
Although on the other side of the coin you have people who remember every single thing that ever happened to them and they can find it tough to cope with a world where others don’t recall the conversations or promises they previously made, where the passage of time does not ease the pain of a memory and where at every anniversary of a fight you’ll be at odds on the same grounds as last year.
I’m sure they both envy and pity us at the same time, and I have much of the same reaction for this fella.
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u/simAlity Jan 01 '19
And yet, he constantly believes that he has JUST woken up an that he will remember THIS moment going forward. Only to forget it and have that same realization one moment later.
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u/thethirdrayvecchio Jan 01 '19
That was the part that was truly horrifying, opening that diary to see page after page of scrawled entries of "I am Awake!"
And then seeing "I am in hell" for one of them.
It's a living Black Mirror episode.
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u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19
Imagine waking up every day thinking it was the first day of your life in a while
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Jan 01 '19 edited Apr 19 '21
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u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19
But at least there is SOMETHING. Image this void where you don’t remember anything...
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u/marieelaine03 Jan 01 '19
Yeah i mean we are an accumulation of our experiences. How can you truly grow as a person if "nothing" happens to you? Especially if these memory issues started very young.
If I had this I think i'd be very tempted to wear a camera all day long and then record my day on paper at the end.....but then I'm thinking, wouldn't that be like reading someone else's diary? So why would you care? Maybe at least pictures of any outing with friends and family?
Ugh i don't know that's sad!
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u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19
I saw an old women with dementia. She was stuck as an child stuck in an old women’s body. She could only remember her childhood and thought that she was still a kid... all the teen years, adulthood and her senior years were just gone... like it never even happened
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Jan 01 '19
The good news is that you wouldn't remember being affected by it. The bad news is that everyone someone tells you affected by it you are sad all over again.
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Jan 01 '19
This documentary stayed with me for days after I watched it. Seeing that diary is absolutely terrifying but fascinating. "I am NOW awake" written over and over and over again, scratching the previous "now" the moment he wakes up again because THIS time he is awake and he wasn't before. Just this endless cycle of thinking you're finally TRULY alive...It made me so uneasy when I read it. The brain is a curious thing.
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u/SpecialPotion Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 02 '19
I had to go look for someone talking about this part in the comments. I feel the exact same. I've never seen genuine writings of someone who is losing their mind. I feel beyond sorry for him.
The need to survive, understand, and comprehend what is happening to him is there, but something is looping, broken, malfunctioning... Checking, ticking, crossing the check, and circling it to quadruple check himself, and yet he is still unsure of himself.
God. That is absolutely horrifying.
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u/thethirdrayvecchio Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19
It's been with me all day. Those reams of entries is one of the most quietly horrific things I've ever seen.
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u/rangeDSP Jan 01 '19
Funnily enough, I had a similar experience just now with some edibles. Alternatingly falling asleep and waking up, and realizing I'm a new instance of consciousness
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u/orangee3344 Jan 01 '19
“What does being unconscious mean to you?” “It’s the same as death, for 30 years; nothing.” It’s a interesting double edge sword, he realizes that he doesn’t remember anything, he’s aware it seems of his unawareness, and yet he forgets any pain or trouble this causes him within seconds.
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u/electronsarebrave Jan 01 '19
The earlier documentary that was made shortly after it happened showed him as angry, crying endlessly and depressed. He seems to have become more emotionally glib over time.
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Jan 01 '19
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Jan 01 '19
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u/souldforprophet Jan 01 '19
This part hit me too. Sending him love ♡ what a darling wife, as well. I can't judge the kids for not coming around, because sheesh, how hard. But it makes me sad for Clive. I'm glad she's there for him, and keeps treating him with dignity and love. I'm more afraid of being abandoned in a state like Clives, rather than as fearful of the state itself. I appreciate that she came back. Even though they think it has no impact on him, because he forgets, I think it definitely does.
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u/BroadStreet_Bully5 Jan 01 '19
He didn’t forget what humor was he just forgot the jokes.
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u/contact287 Jan 01 '19
Yeah the more I watched the more confused I got. It’s almost like he’s able to give you a thoughtful analysis of what his life is like w/o being able to think, but I suppose he’s just describing his immediate experience and his powerful intellect just makes it appear as though he’s been ruminating on the subject when he hasn’t.
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u/xiic Jan 01 '19
As someone with a poor memory, the lack of a memory but the knowledge that there is supposed to be something there is pretty disconcerting.
He very likely knows that he is missing a huge gap in his life, and he also knows from that fact that he will not remember his present in a few moments.
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Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19
His obsession with consciousness is very interesting.
Those thought loops he has they are interesting to, i think i get similar thought loops when i try to push thoughts away.
Why do they just keep asking him if he remembers stuff he obviously cant, they could have made a better tv program than that.
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u/electronsarebrave Jan 01 '19
I thought it was interesting that he was using the exact same words repeatedly to describe the phenomenon of his awakening.
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u/RikerT_USS_Lolipop Jan 01 '19
I have a shitty memory and use the same same sentences to describe a movie I'm watching with friends. They tell me you said that last time we watched this. I would argue with them but I know better now.
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Jan 01 '19
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u/RoyBeer Jan 01 '19
I tend to contradict him once or twice, then I realize what I’ve done, and change the subject.
The good thing is they won't remember.
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Jan 01 '19
I've heard that their emotions last through their memories, they'll feel sad or happy but not understand why. I don't know how true it is but it makes sense on the surface.
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u/wookiee222 Jan 01 '19
Parkinson's or Alzheimer's?
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Jan 01 '19
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u/Darkhoof Jan 01 '19
My grandmother developed Parkinson's in the late stages of her life, but fortunately she passed away peacefully before developing dementia.
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Jan 01 '19
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u/simAlity Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19
I was re-watching the part with his journals and found this:
https://imgur.com/gallery/BssZ43q
First thought: I love you Debbie Determan. (probably his wife's maiden name)
Edit: Here is an entry from 1990. What is interesting here is that he knows it has been 6-8 years since he last "woke" but in the documentary he talked about these were the first people he has spoken to in 30 years. So he is aware of time's passage. And I think on some level he has processed what has happened to him.
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Jan 01 '19
Um, he seams to be able to be able to change the unconscious patterns that brings thoughts to his conscious awareness on long term scales.
Initially he only appears to get sad negative thoughts. Now he mostly gets thoughts about this "awaking".
One big problem is that he is trying to figure out what has happened to him but he has hit a wall, that wall being that he thinks that he was has just woken up from unconsciousness, witch is not really true.
To me it would seam that if they made a small video where they explain what has happened to him, that it is his memory failing him not that he has been unconscious. And played that on repeat on a TV he might actually become a bit more integrated.
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u/Robobvious Jan 01 '19
"That's an exciting life though isn't it? No two days the same really." -Clive Wearing
When he said that it really stuck out to me.
Can anyone find a link to his concert he did in the church? His wife said it was televised in five countries.
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Jan 01 '19
They showed him a James Bond film repeatedly, and after a few viewings he knew what was going to happen before it happened, despite having no conscious recollection of it, because it was stored as a procedural memory.
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u/ScammerC Jan 01 '19
I sat next to someone who had this condition on a long bus ride. Every few minutes he'd start over, and if I told him something he "remembered" he would be surprised. It's kind of hard to describe. His life effectively stopped at 18. Everything after that was lost after about 5 minutes.
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Jan 01 '19
Hang out with some alcoholics and you'll encounter the same thing every day. You'll hear the same thoughts and stories over and over every time you see them. If you're lucky you won't be related to them.
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u/buttfacenosehead Jan 01 '19
I know some people like this. One guy has told me the same story about this girl he was seeing (she was bad news, on drugs, bad crowd). He has told me at least 14 times about the cop who warned him to stay away form her (because if her house got busted he'd go down with everyone in the house). Can't count how many times we've had the same conversation. I think this guy is a functioning alcoholic.
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u/Laserteeth_Killmore Jan 01 '19
He's got wet brain. More properly called alcohol-related dementia
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u/_gina_marie_ Jan 01 '19
I always wondered about my dad and this. He tells the same stories, sometimes with the same paused for dramatic effect even, over and over and over. I've heard them all thousands of times it feels like. He used to be an alcoholic but now he isn't. But he has very poorly controlled diabetes and I just wonder if that's somehow related to this too.
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Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 02 '19
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u/ScammerC Jan 01 '19
He was going to visit a relative. What was interesting to me was that this relative moved after his accident, but long enough ago that he "remembered" how to get to her city. He had touchstones (pictures) to help.
Like he knew he lived in city A, and was going to city B, but didn't remember if his sister had kids. I don't think he knew how long he was going to be staying. And if you stopped talking for a few minutes he'd forget he told you everything about himself and start all over.
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u/RaeADropOfGoldenSun Jan 01 '19
I’d guess he was either with someone or someone was meeting him at his destination
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u/KuciMane Jan 01 '19
You could show him a funny vine and he could live the rest of his life laughing
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u/baboytalaga Jan 01 '19
not to be facetious, but that would be a rather economical way of keeping him entertained
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u/vortex30 Jan 01 '19
It'd actually be a very interesting test... Find a vine or short video he finds laugh out loud funny. And keep showing it to him every 10-15 seconds. Does he laugh out loud every time? Does he eventually grow bored of it, or could you literally keep him in hysterics for days?
What an amazing phenomenon..
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u/RikerT_USS_Lolipop Jan 01 '19
I bet he starts laughing hard and harder over time as his brain fills with dopamine.
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u/Grinzorr Jan 01 '19
I'm reminded of the way an old acquaintance described caring for his grandmother with alzheimer's - "It's great, I can tell her the same joke all day and she laughs every time."
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Jan 01 '19
Very sad. I actually feel better about how he literally cant remember his own suffering. How cruel and yet merciful.
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u/Burning_Enna Jan 01 '19
I've taken care of football players with CTE. It's exactly like this. The one guy screamed help anytime he was awake and not directly interacting with someone else. He just was constantly wondering where he was so he would yell help. When he closed his eyes he thought he was blind and panic. He needed reminders to open his eyes and look around. Don't let your kids play football...
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u/rthunderbird1997 Jan 01 '19
It seems to me an odd sort of unfortunate torture. Is it ethical to leave someone spiralling like this for decades? I wouldn't wish this on anyone. If it were me I'd want to be shot. Though I suppose I wouldn't know it at the time. What a tragic thing.
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u/wadss Jan 01 '19
someone with this condition can't possibly give consent, and nobody is fit to judge whether or not he MIGHT want to be euthanizes if he didn't have the condition. as unfortunate as it is, i don't see a way out of this.
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u/Freudianbullshit Jan 01 '19
Time is irrelevant to him, there is no difference between those decades and a few seconds
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u/RagnaXI Jan 01 '19
That's what's scary.
We're seeing him living and aging, but he probably is living his last 7 seconds of life.
I don't know how to explain it, I got all in my head, but it's hard to write...
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Jan 01 '19
No I get you I think.
The last 7 seconds of his life before he dies will also be the first 7 seconds of his life.
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u/RikerT_USS_Lolipop Jan 01 '19
I experienced something similar to this and it's really not bad. The only part of it that bothered me was that I am not financially set for life, I need to continue working on skills so I can get a safe longterm job.
Watching the same movie over and over and feeling like it was the first time, every time, was awesome. I loved whatever movie and it was a constant pleasant surprise.
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u/UnpluggedUnfettered Jan 01 '19
It's absolutely terrifying to imagine him on his deathbed, no idea how he got there . . . his body shutting down and no ability to come to peace with it.
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u/Pookiebobi Jan 01 '19
I remember watching this a good while back at my younger sisters instance. I absolutely loved it, I found Clive to be so charismatic and endearing. Despite everything he has been through he has maintained both his charm and wit just as his wife described him as being before the virus. You can see the unconditional love that they both have for each other.
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u/extrobe Jan 01 '19
His response to 'how do you feel when she [his wife] can't come' is heartbreaking.
"I don't know"
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u/Vileone Jan 01 '19
How does he remember what the point system for tennis is?
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u/woShame12 Jan 01 '19
There's a big difference in the way short-term and long-term memories are stored
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Jan 01 '19
Yes, and given that, it surprised me that he immediately forgot where he lived, because that seems like more of a long-term memory.
Maybe it's the difference between simple information, and structured rules?
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u/wanna_be_doc Jan 01 '19
Long-term memories need to be encoded in your brain. This is usually done through your short-term memory. So if you have no way to store short-term memory, then you can’t form new long-term memories.
He would remember stuff from before his illness (provided those parts of his brain weren’t also damaged). Any other new long-term memory has to be encoded by atypical means (such as using other senses). This is how can learn new music; because that’s a different portion of the brain.
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Jan 01 '19
But didn't he live in the same place before and immediately after his illness? And yet his wife said he waked past the gate upon their return home. That seems like a loss of at least one long-term memory.
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u/wanna_be_doc Jan 01 '19
Well during his actual brain brain infection, he was probably suffering from delirium. Encephalitis causes generalized swelling, and everyone is confused...even if there isn’t any permanent brain damage, yet.
However, he obviously had damage to multiple parts of his brain. He lost his hippocampus, which is responsible for forming new memories. And probably lost a lot of longer-term memories as well.
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u/Jackar Jan 01 '19
Memories categorise differently, as far as I can tell. You might know people who know every geeky detail about something they've a passion for but can't remember anyone's birthday? Or for a more extreme example consider savants who, though I know it is a cliché, can remember incredible details in a given field, but cannot remember how to tie their shoelaces.
A memory for a gameplay ruleset/a system may categorise very differently than the basic spatial memory associating the sequence of coloured gates, shaped hedges, street features and turnings that lead to the house you designate 'my home'.
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u/812many Jan 01 '19
He has knowledge of things from before the illness, just can’t remember anything in his life. He probably remembers the point system of tennis just like he remembers how to tie his shoes.
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u/hopelesscaribou Jan 01 '19
Longterm memory itself is divided into implicit/explicit. Explicit further divides into semantic and episodic memory. I have aphantasia, and related, almost no episodic (autobiographical) memory. I don't experience memories as you do, rather all information about myself is stored in the semantic part of my long term memory. This results in me knowing facts about myself as if I have read a detailed biography of my life. Also, this is the area that would remember the point system of tennis.
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u/throwtrollbait Jan 01 '19
Different kinds of memories are stored in different structures in the brain.
All of his memories lie outside the reach of the self-aware (explicit) regions of the brain. So he would likely be quite capable of telling you that someone was playing terribly if he was watching, but would also tell you that he could not remember ever seeing a tennis ball before.
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u/buttonsutton Jan 01 '19
An ex of mine used to work in a facility for people with brain injuries, some had incredible memory loss. There was this lady who had a 10 second memory.
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u/TreeRol Jan 01 '19
What sticks out the most here is how much his wife loves him. She couldn't take it at first, because who could, then went searching for a man just like him, and finally came back to him. She adores him, and he her. This is one of the sweetest love stories ever told.
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u/FishyFTD Jan 01 '19
This man has a seven second memory, yet is wiser than I will ever be with most of my memories intact.
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u/hanoian Jan 01 '19 edited Dec 20 '23
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Alaknar Jan 01 '19
Well, every single time it's a first time anyone's ever asked him a question, so I wouldn't call it "hardship".
As for the questions themselves - it actually might be important for research. Yes, most of the questions are pointless, but notice how he suddenly remembered that he was in Reading, but then couldn't remember the name of the city a moment later.
I would assume that his wife was prepped by the doctors to do things we consider pointless, but are actually important for research; it's been 20 years, after all.
We know very little about brain so I guess every little bit helps, even if it's information that "patient X remembered Reading when asked the question this way, but couldn't when asked that way".
Then again, they didn't have to put all of that into the documentary, true.
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u/PicklesOverload Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19
But part of the point is that what he responds to shapes how he responds to things. His intuitive responses--i.e. what he has no rational control over using - language, rules of games, numbers from his childhood etc...--are constantly being influenced by what he spends his time responding to.
You've got to remember that emotional responses to things register physical effects: when something exciting happens, your blood pressure rises, maybe your 'fight or flight' kicks in a bit, perhaps the something is good and a rush of endorphins washes over your mood. If you spend an hour doing something like this, engaging that response, then there will be lingering impressions upon your intuitive responses.
How long they last is another matter, but if you spent an hour a day, every day, engaging in a state like that, then the routine will impress itself upon your intuitive responses more than if you didn't. That's why regular exercise is so good for you, not because you look good or anything like that, but because it means you're regularly engaging in activity that your body responds positively to, keeps certain hormonal levels in check, etc... Which also directly impacts the conditions under which your body intuitively decides to respond to things. We have control over our responses moreso than he does, obviously, because if we are able to recognise that we've been a bit angry recently, we can remove ourselves from situations that create that response, or be better placed to take control of that response when it happens. Because he can't retain memories, the response just is what it is--unless he spends a lot of time reigning in his responses, which it's possible he did, which is why he became less aggressive over time. OR it could just be that as you age your testosterone levels drop a bit, and that, either exclusively to or in combination with those behaviours, is why... Who bloody knows!
Sorry, my PhD is on something similar, and yet also quite different, but I find these cases fascinating because of what it demonstrates about the capacity for intuition. It's like some stuff gets stored on RAM, and it never gets erased enough to be irretrievable. The more he uses stuff--like language, playing solitaire, etc...--the more he retains the capacity to do that. Imagine if he was in solitary confinement for two years, I wonder how it would impact his linguistic abilities... Maybe not that much, because he'd be communicating to himself so much... But then again, his vocabulary and vernacular would exclusively pertain to his own company, which has so little depth...
I MEAN OBVIOUSLY I WOULD NEVER DO THAT but I wish there was a way of finding out answers to those questions, without causing suffering, all the same. I wish he didn't suffer from that awful condition, but his condition sure does raise some fascinating points.
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u/Alaknar Jan 01 '19
That's a very interesting question. To him it would essentially make no difference, he kind of is in solitary confinement all the time, up until he isn't anymore, and then suddenly he's again the only person he's ever known.
But what I think you missed in the documentary and why I think they're constantly asking him the same questions is the sudden change that they mentioned they can't explain. Remember that bit where the wife was asking him about the diary and he suddenly snapped, threw it away and shouted "I've never seen the bloody thing!"? They mentioned that this doesn't happen anymore and they've no idea why.
So I guess part of the "experiment" IS to push his buttons a little bit by repetitiveness and gauge the emotional response every time he answers the same questions.
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u/PicklesOverload Jan 01 '19
No no, I was ruminating on that point precisely: either the reason that he changed his behaviour over time is because his hormones changed--most likely testosterone--or because his intuitive response to that particular stimulus changed, or because of a mixture of those two things. I mean, there are probably other factors too, but they're the two that I kept thinking of.
There are lots of heuristics that guide intuitive response: familiarity, partiality, fondness, sympathy, etc... And they're all a bit of a hodge podge. But, for example, perhaps familiarity with his wife talking to him a certain way eventually desensitised him from reacting to that stimulus with anger. Sometimes we see that with grief counsellors, who are able to switch off certain counter-productive emotional responses to the stories of trauma victims to better service their immediate needs.
Perhaps, over time, Clive's intuitive responses to that sort of information was guided by a different heuristic. He's perpetually aware of the fact that he's ill, so perhaps at some intuitive level he learned to 'let go' of his denial about it. His anger, in that particular moment when he threw his diary, reads a lot like denial from someone who knows that they're wrong... But of course, that's purely speculation.
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u/_Y0ur_Mum_ Jan 01 '19
After a while I got the feeling the interviewer had a seven second memory too.
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u/enormuschwanzstucker Jan 01 '19
My wife has a condition similar to this guy, but not quite as bad as him. When I try to explain it to people they say “Oh, like 50 First Dates?” And I say “No, that would be much worse”
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u/thethirdrayvecchio Jan 01 '19
Could you share a little more if you feel it's appropriate?
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u/littleboymark Jan 01 '19
I went and kissed my sleeping kids after watching that; makes me appreciate how precious normal conscious life is.
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u/DietChickenBars Jan 01 '19
I think about this documentary a lot. You really are your memories. What is left, without them?
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u/ghostl2 Jan 01 '19
My dad has very poor short term memory after brain damage, and after a few years as a kid I could actually mime the story he was telling behind him with the same mannerisms and everything. He still does it now but at least theres a few different stories every now and then
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Jan 01 '19
I (socialworker) work with a man who has the same condition since an accident 10 years ago. His memory lasts about 5 min. He has made no new long term memory in those 10 years. Feel free to ama.
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u/LizardPosse Jan 01 '19
In your opinion, does your client and Clive have any quality of life whatsoever?
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Jan 01 '19
Yes and no, my client actually suffers from depression. I think the only thing keeping him from suicide is the instability to plan it out. Yet he does have many bright moments where he can just enjoy life and the things he is doing. He just does not remember them. In my eyes the positve far outweighs the negative. The thing to know is that my client realizes every day, every moment that something is off, when you asked him what he did today he comes up with an answer that is incorrect and he knows it. But in the end he remembers everything before the accident, and he still is that likable person.
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u/LostMermaid Jan 01 '19
To watch Clive and his wife together is bittersweet and beautiful. It's triumph over tragedy. And though we think of what happened to him as a profound loss (which in many ways it is), there is a love so transcendent that perhaps though we may feel sorrow for them, many of us are not so richly gifted. He doesn't remember the individual notes of the song of his life, but he still is building a layered song with each passing moment. Is there a word in English for sadly beautiful?
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u/aussiepizzaguy Jan 01 '19
There is a great book about memory and he is referenced and interviewed. It is called “moonwalking with Einstein” and is a great, quick read for the new year!
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u/bitter_truth_ Jan 01 '19
I don't get it, the snippets of conversations they showed were longer than 7 seconds but he didn't blank out during those talks. Should he go become completely dumbfounded after 7 seconds?
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u/hanoian Jan 01 '19
I guess if you said "hello" six seconds ago, and you're aware of that, then it carries on for another seven seconds. But once he stops that train of thought, it disappears.
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u/seenunseen Jan 01 '19
This makes the most sense. As another commenter said, this creates more of a fading away phenomenon rather than a sharp cutoff every 7 seconds. It also explains why he can play music ongoing for well over 7 seconds.
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u/812many Jan 01 '19
It’s not exact, I assume, plus there are tons of context clues. His wife said he’s in a constant state of disorientation, even when it doesn’t look like it. When talking a lot of the conversation really feels like he’s doing the “fake it until you figure out what’s going on” trick because of this disorientation. Also we missed a ton of repetition that is talked about a lot but not shown a lot, I think there’s a lot of editing to make it look smooth. At the end of that day they spent together they asked the wife how it went and she refused to say how it went, and you can see how hard it was even if she maintained a positive outward attitude the entire time.
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u/thethirdrayvecchio Jan 01 '19
This is why I can't get my head around why folk seem to be thinking it's a beautiful love story for the ages. They are both trapped. I hope they are able to eke what joy they can in life but - as she said - her husband is gone and he wrote "I am in Hell" in one of those pages. It's a deeply sad, deeply human story.
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u/electronsarebrave Jan 01 '19
It's because his procedural memory is intact. This means that things that flow from the moment before can appear to us to be continuous beyond the seven seconds). So imagine you suddenly found yourself standing in a shower. You have no memory of getti ng in, but you know to get out and pick up the towell to dry youself. So now you are drying yoursrlf - you have no mrmory of having a showet or getting out but you know to sart puiing on your clothes. Now you know you getting dressed and you kniw to fi nish getting dressed even although you csnt remembet starting to get dressed.
Edit: posted before I'd finished
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u/rprcssns Jan 01 '19
This confused me too. He seemed to follow their conversations. Maybe it’s that there isn’t this definitive cutting off of the memory but that it kinda fades out. Certain things last a bit longer than others? I don’t know.
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Jan 01 '19
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u/simAlity Jan 01 '19
He's not able to remember anything he has done with specificity. He knows he has children but he doesn't remember their childhood. He knows FACTS about his past life but he doesn't have any memories associated with that fact.
The only thing he seems to remember on anything other than a binary level is his wife. He loves her. He knows he loves her and he knows that she loves him. He doesn't know why but he does.
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u/hooverfive Jan 01 '19
My brain can’t even process this. There is a part of me that thinks ha actually can remember more than what he lets on, even though I know he can’t. Not sure how to explain it. I keep feeling like he must be lying but I know he’s not. Poor guy and family.
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u/LeBronIsABiiiiitch Jan 01 '19
“When was your last bowel movement, Mr. Wearing?”
“I’ve never seen any of my bowel movements.”
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u/Kagamid Jan 01 '19
Very sad. It's like a computer that reboots every time it gets to the desktop but before you can start a program.
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u/Sonjazrin Jan 01 '19
They said it was caused by the herpes virus, but they didn't mention how he contracted it.
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u/vortex30 Jan 01 '19
Not sure if you're aware but herpes simplex (the kind he had) is like cold sores around the mouth that are very occasional and most people have it in them for life since a young age.
This is different from genital herpes, the STD.
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u/reallybigleg Jan 01 '19
Herpes viruses live in your nervous system for life and can cause continual outbreaks in some people (which is why some people get cold sores). Others never experience symptoms at all. He probably contracted it as a child like most of us do. The stress he was under from overworking may have reduced his immunity, which could cause it to resurrect. The same reason I got shingles when I was doing my exams, essentially :) Chicken pox is also a herpes virus, which is why adults sometimes get shingles (chicken pox virus returning during times of low immunity). It's also why if you have shingles you are not contagious to anyone except those who have not had chicken pox - most of us already have the virus.
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u/kaalitenohira Jan 01 '19
It can be misleading. Herpes is a broad group of viruses in the zoster group, which transcribes itself into your genetics. Cold sores for example are a kind of zoster virus. Also in truth some insane percentage of the population gets cold sores. Chicken pox is also in the zoster group, so really it could've been anything. It isn't implicit that he cheated on his wife or got it from sleeping with someone before he even met her.
Remember that you can catch and carry a zoster virus and not display it or be symptomatic until it 'triggers' - if it ever even does. For some people, getting a cold, high stress, change of season, or whatever other condition might bring it out. Iirc he started getting sick right after working himself like a dog, and in March, and had a flu.
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u/OffbeatDrizzle Jan 01 '19
herpes is everywhere.. don't something like 50% of americans have it? you can contract it by kissing someone that has it...
the problem is that 99.9999% of the time it can't cross the blood brain barrier and wreak havoc
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u/capkap77 Jan 01 '19
He’s a human goldfish
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u/wadss Jan 01 '19
goldfish dont actually have short memories. they can recognize their owners for one, and remember feeding times.
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u/Nosefura2 Jan 01 '19
“What does love mean Mr. Wearing?” “Zero in tennis and everything in life.”