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This is similar to the point made in Ted Chiang's short story "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling." When writing replaced oral storytelling, people's memor

This is similar to the point made in Ted Chiang's short story "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling." When writing replaced oral storytelling, people's memories and experiences shifted as well. He makes the case that having one's experiences always available for playback will create another kind of shift.

markdown 7y ago
I used to be able to remember lots of phone numbers. Now I don't even know the numbers of close friends and relatives. I've outsourced that job to my phone.
- brobdingnagians 7y ago
  I don't even know my _own_ phone number at the moment. I got a new one weeks ago, but I just copy and paste it now when I nee d to send it to someone else. It feels odd realizing that I don't remember exact things as much anymore, because I can just look it up or forward them without having to process them.
- everdrive 7y ago
  But I'll bet you know 20 passwords, or more. That fundamental skill is not lost. You're just not getting any phone number practice anymore. You're getting password practice all the time, I'll bet.
  - paulryanrogers 7y ago
    Unless you use a password manager and make every one unique and random.
  - pwodhouse 7y ago
    Strong disagree. I don't remember passwords like I remembered phone numbers. Perhaps because I don't say them out loud, hand write them, and lunch them on a tactile keyboard frequently
    - linuxftw 7y ago
      Phone numbers, at least in the US, were much simpler 15+ years ago. Most people had a number starting with an area-code + first-3, out of say, 5-10 possible combinations. EG, 123-444, 123-323, 123-789, 555-121. So, you really needed to remember the prefix and the last 4. There were exceptions, but most of your circle lived within this finite space of telephone numbers.
- om3n 7y ago
  Your brain my not remember the phone numbers, but it contains the location of (or the pointers to) the object that contains the phone numbers. Sort of reminds me of the "extended mind thesis" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_mind_thesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_mind_thesis
  - taneq 7y ago
    Yeah, I've noticed that I remember a lot more information these days as... external references? Breadcrumbs? Like, I have no idea what that person's called but I know I got an email from them last Thursday so I can look it up if I need to. Or I don't know the exact phrasing of a quote but I know the exact search term I'd use to find it on the web.
    - dasyatidprime 7y ago
      Now, what happens when, say, memories of conversations turn into pointers to chat logs that are stored on the central server, where they can be modified, deleted, or your access taken away by the service or nowadays often by the other party?
      - knd775 7y ago
        I automatically backup all of my tweets to a google sheet that I then download periodically. I don't necessarily do it for the reason that you gave, but that's definitely a reason to to something like this.
      - therein 7y ago
        We will be left with worthless dangling pointers to our memories.
  - oarabbus_ 7y ago
    Extended mind... interesting, but also seems untestable/in the realm of pseudo-science.

markdown 7y ago

I used to be able to remember lots of phone numbers. Now I don't even know the numbers of close friends and relatives. I've outsourced that job to my phone.

brobdingnagians 7y ago
I don't even know my _own_ phone number at the moment. I got a new one weeks ago, but I just copy and paste it now when I nee d to send it to someone else. It feels odd realizing that I don't remember exact things as much anymore, because I can just look it up or forward them without having to process them.
everdrive 7y ago
But I'll bet you know 20 passwords, or more. That fundamental skill is not lost. You're just not getting any phone number practice anymore. You're getting password practice all the time, I'll bet.
- paulryanrogers 7y ago
  Unless you use a password manager and make every one unique and random.
- pwodhouse 7y ago
  Strong disagree. I don't remember passwords like I remembered phone numbers. Perhaps because I don't say them out loud, hand write them, and lunch them on a tactile keyboard frequently
  - linuxftw 7y ago
    Phone numbers, at least in the US, were much simpler 15+ years ago. Most people had a number starting with an area-code + first-3, out of say, 5-10 possible combinations. EG, 123-444, 123-323, 123-789, 555-121. So, you really needed to remember the prefix and the last 4. There were exceptions, but most of your circle lived within this finite space of telephone numbers.
om3n 7y ago
Your brain my not remember the phone numbers, but it contains the location of (or the pointers to) the object that contains the phone numbers. Sort of reminds me of the "extended mind thesis" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_mind_thesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_mind_thesis
- taneq 7y ago
  Yeah, I've noticed that I remember a lot more information these days as... external references? Breadcrumbs? Like, I have no idea what that person's called but I know I got an email from them last Thursday so I can look it up if I need to. Or I don't know the exact phrasing of a quote but I know the exact search term I'd use to find it on the web.
  - dasyatidprime 7y ago
    Now, what happens when, say, memories of conversations turn into pointers to chat logs that are stored on the central server, where they can be modified, deleted, or your access taken away by the service or nowadays often by the other party?
    - knd775 7y ago
      I automatically backup all of my tweets to a google sheet that I then download periodically. I don't necessarily do it for the reason that you gave, but that's definitely a reason to to something like this.
    - therein 7y ago
      We will be left with worthless dangling pointers to our memories.
- oarabbus_ 7y ago
  Extended mind... interesting, but also seems untestable/in the realm of pseudo-science.