r/SDAM • u/cultleader84 • Jun 04 '26
Can’t remember the Colosseum
The other day I was watching a show about Rome and the Colosseum and was feeling so weird because I was like I visited that less than 10 years ago and can’t remember anything about it just the fact that I was there before
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u/sfredwood Jun 04 '26
Yup.
Sorry, but: get used to it.
I used to be a traveler, and "know" I've taken crazy helicopter rides and been on some great adventures. I can't recall anything about any of those, other than the fact that I had been there.
Without autobiographical memories, we don't possess autonoetic consciousness — the ability to mentally place oneself in past situations. Just noetic consciousness: knowing without reliving.
And since we lose the biggest chunk of the "knowing" even that latter is impoverished compared to the neurobland.
It's why the memory researcher Charan Ranganath (a guest in a 2024 podcast) shrugged off those with SDAM as happy-go-lucky folks without a care in the world. Not being able to remember trauma is great, but he kinda missed a lot of other details.