Our Irrational Fear of Forgetting

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/opinion/22gullette.html

by anupj • 15 years ago

46 14 15 years ago

Meai• 15 years ago

Let me summarize the article: "Forgetting stuff every now and then isn't that bad."

Yes, that is indeed the entire content of the article. I apologize if the article is meant as a joke, I'm not entirely sure either way. This makes me wonder:

"[...]but she discovered an upside to forgetting. She had forgotten old rancors as well as President George W. Bush’s name."

I also wonder why I keep reading newspapers.

Alex3917• 15 years ago

Dunno, this article really hit home to me. This past year has been the first time I've been involved in a relationship that's gotten to the transactive memory phase, and that's kind of scary. On the one hand it frees up cognitive cycles to let you do things you never could have done otherwise, but on the other hand there are chunks of your life that are disappearing. (If I remember correctly, this is theorized to be one of the reasons why men are more likely to commit suicide after a breakup.)

I guess that's the way it's always like with our parents, but somehow it feels different with a significant other.

maeon3• 15 years ago

We are measuring our own human memories against the flawless nature of computer system memory and as a result people are raising the bar on what "normal human memory" should look like.

We shall just have to decrease the amount of time it takes for humans to access the flawless computer memory.

When the amount of data for one person to remember becomes too great then increased specialization is required.

wahnfrieden• 15 years ago

We can also take advantage of computers to help us to be able to actively recall things, using spaced repetition systems. These are an attempt to make long-term memorization as efficient as possible.

6ren• 15 years ago

I have a fear of forgetting insights i just had - it's not irrational, because if I don't grab them quickly enough they vanish (though sometimes come back).

orangecat• 15 years ago

The fact that only 1 in 8 Americans older than 65 has Alzheimer’s fails to register.

That's supposed to be comforting? Alzheimer's isn't the only way for your mind to fall apart, and a lower bound of 12.5% of that happening doesn't give me warm fuzzies. Aging really, really sucks and we need to fix it.

biot• 15 years ago

That was my take as well... people are hopeful that they'll win the lottery at odds of one in millions. Would people not play the lottery if the odds were "only" one in eight? Alzheimer's is only slightly better odds than Russian roulette.

archgoon2• 15 years ago

Smokers have a 11-17% chance of developing lung cancer, according to this study.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7895211

corin_2• 15 years ago

As a smoker, my two thoughts are:

1.) I'd rather have a 10% chance of dying than a 10% chance of living many years with something like Alzheimer's.

2.) I'm not someone who says "I wish I could quit but I'm addicted", I find it easy not to smoke but I do it because I really enjoy smoking. I'm trading possible early death with current pleasure. Alzheimer's doesn't have any upside or choice involved.

blahedo• 15 years ago

"...she discovered an upside to forgetting. She had forgotten old rancors...."

This bears repeating, because it's both interesting and unexpected. I have a relative with Alzheimer's—diagnosed a year ago—and while the signs are unmistakable, she's also still perfectly conversational, reasonably independent, and most surprisingly, much more amiable towards people to whom she was formerly rather cool. Our best explanation is exactly as stated in the article: that she had basically forgotten the rancor.

Anyway, I saw her so clearly in that line of the article I had to point it out, because it was (and still is) so surprising to us that this would be an effect of Alzheimer's.

MichaelGG• 15 years ago

Nonsense. Your memories comprise much of who you are. Losing them is like losing parts of yourself, and it's extremely disconcerting.

I'm only 29, but I've had a few points of memory loss (amongst other mental issues). You've done things, significant things even, but have zero recollection. I've had to go to my email and IM archives to verify events and convince myself that yes, they happened. It's shocking when you find out days or whole weeks have happened, yet they are just erased from your mind. Imagine if a family member asked you about your trip to X, a place you'd never gone, yet everyone acted as if you had. You'd laugh and think it a joke, until you realised it wasn't a joke - then how'd you feel?

Coupled with dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer's (or another loss of mental function), it's no wonder some would want to kill themselves. Why would you want to live in a disjointed dream, perhaps with a constant sense that something is terribly wrong, but not understanding what's happening? Why would you want to destroy others' memories of you, by leaving them with years of "not you"?

I probably have 2 or 3 decades before things are really bad (perhaps a lot more with advances in medicine and technology), but if I ever get too bad, I'm going out on the highest note possible. If not for me, for my family.

Our Irrational Fear of Forgetting

Related Stories