3 ms·

Something that I think was probably once obvious to me but I rediscovered recently is just how intensely wired for song the brain is. If you want to memorize an

Something that I think was probably once obvious to me but I rediscovered recently is just how intensely wired for song the brain is. If you want to memorize anything, doing it as a song makes it far easier. I’d really love to see things like this generate little jingles along with the sentence. :)

Terr_ 7mo ago
It's huge when you consider all the data humans have stored and transferred orally over the millennia. Music, meter, and rhyme are all (among other things) algorithms for indexing and error-correction, tools very suitable to the squishy hardware.
vunderba 7mo ago
There actually was an attempt on HN a little while back to use GenAI to convert facts, flashcards, lists, etc. into automated melodic mnemonics. The biggest issue in that particular case was that it was also generating the motif from scratch. At least for me, part of the reason I can still sing the countries of the world is because the original Animaniacs song was set to a tune that was already familiar: “Jarabe Tapatío” (aka the Mexican Hat Dance).
- Timwi 7mo ago
  I memorized that (and several other) Animaniacs songs without being familiar with the melody. Even Tom Lehrer’s The Elements reached me before Pirates of Penzance did. I think the melody just needs to be simple, then it'll become ”familiar” quickly. However, for the use-case at hand (remembering IPv6 addresses) I don't think I'd use that. I'd just write them down somewhere, like, uh, perhaps, oh I know: the hosts file.
  - vunderba 7mo ago
    “Catchiness” is probably more important than anything, hence the concept of the earworm aka stuck song syndrome. Even SOTA GenAI like Suno/Udio fall pretty short of generating genuinely engaging melodies.
voidUpdate 7mo ago
As anecdotal evidence, I could never remember all the names of the london tube stations as prose, but after listening to Jay Foreman's Every Tube Station song a few times, I cant help but sing it every time I hear a tube station name, and can almost flawlessly list them all off https://youtu.be/8jPyg2pK11M https://youtu.be/8jPyg2pK11M

Terr_ 7mo ago

It's huge when you consider all the data humans have stored and transferred orally over the millennia. Music, meter, and rhyme are all (among other things) algorithms for indexing and error-correction, tools very suitable to the squishy hardware.

vunderba 7mo ago

There actually was an attempt on HN a little while back to use GenAI to convert facts, flashcards, lists, etc. into automated melodic mnemonics. The biggest issue in that particular case was that it was also generating the motif from scratch. At least for me, part of the reason I can still sing the countries of the world is because the original Animaniacs song was set to a tune that was already familiar: “Jarabe Tapatío” (aka the Mexican Hat Dance).

Timwi 7mo ago
I memorized that (and several other) Animaniacs songs without being familiar with the melody. Even Tom Lehrer’s The Elements reached me before Pirates of Penzance did. I think the melody just needs to be simple, then it'll become ”familiar” quickly. However, for the use-case at hand (remembering IPv6 addresses) I don't think I'd use that. I'd just write them down somewhere, like, uh, perhaps, oh I know: the hosts file.
- vunderba 7mo ago
  “Catchiness” is probably more important than anything, hence the concept of the earworm aka stuck song syndrome. Even SOTA GenAI like Suno/Udio fall pretty short of generating genuinely engaging melodies.

voidUpdate 7mo ago

As anecdotal evidence, I could never remember all the names of the london tube stations as prose, but after listening to Jay Foreman's Every Tube Station song a few times, I cant help but sing it every time I hear a tube station name, and can almost flawlessly list them all off https://youtu.be/8jPyg2pK11M https://youtu.be/8jPyg2pK11M