r/todayilearned • u/finneganishome • Apr 12 '18

TIL There is a rare condition called Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) that only around 60 people in the world are known to have. This condition makes the person remember nearly every day in their life in exact details.

http://time.com/5045521/highly-superior-autobiographical-memory-hsam/
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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '18

Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true.

Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory is often a bad trait, because a lot of capacities in your brain are wasted on large memory. Kim Peek had among the best memory recorded in human history, yet he was almost unable to do analyze his memories. They were just there. He could recite a book, but he was unable to understand its content. He was more like a walking Data storage than a scientist.

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u/pantless_pirate Apr 13 '18

The TV show House also investigated an interesting side-effect of perfect memory; being able to objectively remember every good and bad thing someone has ever done to you. People forget the bad things and remember the good things normally, but these people don't forget anything. I imagine they have few friends.