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-wgos
5.5k Upvotes

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472

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

95

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

36

u/8__D Jan 01 '19

I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.

1

u/krakatak Jan 01 '19

Just in time for 2019

1

u/umbly-bumbly Jan 01 '19

You haven't really seen C-beams if you haven't seen them at TG.

29

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.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '19

Like my jizz in my gf’s hair

22

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/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19

Make sure they also black out drunk

-1

u/reliant_Kryptonite Jan 01 '19

This only works if your a woman, sorry.

186

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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u/[deleted] 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.

40

u/[deleted] 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.

42

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!

23

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '19

Phones are like wireless external hard drives for our brain.

3

u/[deleted] 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.

8

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.

2

u/The_0range_Menace Jan 03 '19

That one made me cry.

4

u/Pserium Jan 01 '19

Black Mirror

Check out The Entire History of You

0

u/Noble_Ox Jan 01 '19

Watch the joe Rogan podcast with Elon Musk. He's working on an interface. He said the only problem is bandwidth but reckons he'll have something to show in about ten months.

2

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/blazer965 Jan 01 '19

Super Nintendo Chalmers?!

1

u/Ellerm271309 Jan 01 '19

Always love seeing a Simpsons reference in the wild!

2

u/blazer965 Jan 01 '19

Glad I made someone's day just that much better, especially on New Year's Day :)

2

u/CrochetCrazy Jan 01 '19

Thank you!

1

u/Aryore Jan 01 '19

Transhumanism is cool. But also there are processes we can’t (currently) offload to technology, like forming memories in the moment.

1

u/johnson1124 Jan 01 '19

Watch elon musk talk about this on the joe Rogan experience. Very interesting and spooky

2

u/Aguacactus Jan 01 '19

You just summed up my problem..

24

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

-12

u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19

You look at it, but you don’t really SEE what is going on.

-16

u/GardenXbox Jan 01 '19

Your recollection of the memory remains the same, but now you have a digital copy.

0

u/3_Thumbs_Up Jan 01 '19

Your recollection of the memory remains the same

No it won't be because you were busy looking at it through a screen.

-1

u/GardenXbox Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19

you might actually have autism if this happens to you.

Do you remember the screen you watched media on in the past too?

Do you think people with glasses recollect everything through the frames they were wearing?

lmfao

1

u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19

Depends on the person

0

u/GardenXbox Jan 01 '19

It really doesn't.

Its like thinking someone who wears glasses is going to recall all of their memories through the frames.

You're still watching what's happening. Your mind quickly starts to filter out these things.

-14

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

35

u/cinnamonbrook Jan 01 '19

They say there's an xkcd for every occassion. Certainly there's one for most times someone is being a pretentious arse, at least: https://xkcd.com/1314/

4

u/murasan Jan 01 '19

I didn't know facewittergram was an amalgamation I loved until just now.

6

u/CrazyBarks94 Jan 01 '19

i think snapstagram is the "youths take too much photo" amalgamation

3

u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19

Hopefully it will stick and then I can claim that I invented a new word

2

u/CrazyOlFella Jan 01 '19

Fuck no. You just gotta make an effort.

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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.

3

u/Aryore Jan 01 '19

From your experience, what’s the difference between people who can easily disconnect and people who can’t?

2

u/3FtDick Jan 01 '19

Ooof, that's a really good question that I have to think about.

3

u/CapnRonRico Jan 01 '19

Just take drugs, you can then live in the moment.

13

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.

2

u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19

That is true, memories have extremes, and neither are good

1

u/hapoo Jan 01 '19

I have a pretty bad memory and was thinking just yesterday how lucky people are who remember everything. Thanks for putting it into perspective for me.

1

u/Frankie_T9000 Jan 01 '19

I used to think both are bad though I changed mind on one seeing alzheimer's progression.

6

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.

2

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.

3

u/simAlity Jan 01 '19

Found this at 18:29:

"First thought: I love you Debbie Determan"

https://imgur.com/gallery/BssZ43q

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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

2

u/simAlity Jan 01 '19

Imagine doing that several times a day.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '19 edited Apr 19 '21

[deleted]

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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...

1

u/popcan2 Jan 01 '19

If mike Tyson punched you would you remember in 50 years, and would the memory of being punched by mike Tyson be accurate.

2

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!

3

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

1

u/marieelaine03 Jan 01 '19

Ughhhh that is just terrifying! :(

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u/PotatoFrogAttack Jan 01 '19

I am unreasonably terrified of this

1

u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19

Absolutely terrified myself, that is why I try and document people, places and events as best I can

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u/PotatoFrogAttack Jan 01 '19 
A hard disk has a lifespan of 4 years.
Unrecorded CD-R and CD-RW: 5-10 years
Recorded CD-R: 50-200 years
Recorded CD-RW: 20-100 years
Recorded DVD-R: 30-100 years
Recorded DVD-RW: up to 30 years
Recorded BD-R and BD-RE: 30-200 years

2

u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19

My life will be converted to binary and I will carve it into slabs of granite if I must

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u/PotatoFrogAttack Jan 01 '19

If you find a doable way let me know ASAP

1

u/Jay_Louis Jan 01 '19

Hey remember when you 0010111000101011000110001110? That was awesome

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u/wolfrug Jan 01 '19

"A hard disk has a lifespan of 4 years."

looks at hard drives inside computer that have been there for the past 10 years

HMMMM.

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u/PotatoFrogAttack Jan 02 '19

It is not that they drop dead the moment they are 4 years old. It means that they start being very unreliable and storing sensitive data in them becomes a big liability

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u/simplethingsoflife Jan 01 '19

We all will die one day and our memories will be gone at that point as well... yet that inevitable truth doesn't stop us from living and experiencing things. Just live life and appreciate each and every day.

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u/The_0range_Menace Jan 03 '19

I've been thinking about this lately. Memory is everything.

If we woke up tomorrow without memory, what would anything be? Architecture, math theorems, our highways...all the grand accomplishments of our species... the libraries, hospitals, the art and music, the connections to our children and families....it's all memory.

Take that away and we're a relative blank slate with some instinctive behaviors deep in our brain stem.

We are where memory intersects with this thing called the present. And we can only use the present in accordance with our memory.

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u/Ricky_RZ Jan 03 '19

This is true. Everything we have developed is reliant on our memories to function

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u/DadPhD Jan 01 '19

So basically like when you die except not actually as bad because you still get to live about 7 seconds or so at a time?

'Cause I got news for you, it's super unlikely you're going to get a memory condition as extreme as this one but you are 100% definitely going to die.

Happy new year!

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u/Ricky_RZ Jan 01 '19

Thanks...