When will your brain be full?

[Jeff Corey]

(Don't crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers).

 

[Wowbagger]

Department of Redundancy Department.

Adding the word "number" after "PIN" adds context that might not necessarily be picked up in speech. "Pin", on its own, is a very generic a word.

As we learn in software development: Sometimes redundancy is necessary, even if it looks silly from a pedant's point of view. This is true everywhere from communications protocols to relational database design.

 

[Wowbagger]

The thing about memory, is that we actually store very little of it. The rest is reconstructed from context and clues about what we do store.

Where one draws the line between "storage" and "reconstruction" might be a matter of context, in itself.

 

[Syntaxvorlon]

Department of Redundancy Department.

You mean the DRD Department?

The way the brain stores information it would be hard for it to become 'full.' It would probably just wipe away memories that have less meaning, like second languages, uninteresting political speeches and boring things, like your family.

 

[I Ratant]

Adding the word "number" after "PIN" adds context that might not necessarily be picked up in speech. "Pin", on its own, is a very generic a word.

As we learn in software development: Sometimes redundancy is necessary, even if it looks silly from a pedant's point of view. This is true everywhere from communications protocols to relational database design.

.
And your car has a VIN number.

 

[Drachasor]

The thing about memory, is that we actually store very little of it. The rest is reconstructed from context and clues about what we do store.

Where one draws the line between "storage" and "reconstruction" might be a matter of context, in itself.

True. Memory is surprisingly awful (the surprising part is how few people realize it).

 

[Wowbagger]

.
And your car has a VIN number.

VIN is such a strange word, on its own, it needs the extra context of adding the word "number" to make it clearer, in speech.

Some of these speech habits, in turn, transfer over to writing.

 

[Wowbagger]

True. Memory is surprisingly awful (the surprising part is how few people realize it).

It becomes less surprising that few people realize how awful memory is, when you realize that the reconstructive modeling system had to evolve in such a way as to convince the person that it provides an accurate reconstruction. Otherwise people would never trust themselves enough to survive very well, in ancient times.

 

[casebro]

I used to know how awful my memory was, but now I can't seem to recall.

 

[welshdean]

RAM memory.

PIN number.

VIN number.

I hope you're all aware that there is no need to add the word after the acronym.

Must go, have to get the portable appliances ready for their PAT test tomorrow.

 

[quarky]

My cup overfloweth and leaketh simultaneously.

 

[Kuko 4000]

One very interesting thing regarding memory is that most of us are currently tapping into it in a very inefficient way. Learning different memory techniques increases greatly our long time memory capabilities.

A simple example:

Ask an ordinary person to remember a list of 30 random words. The results will not be too impressive.

Now teach a simple memory technique (takes about 15 to 20 minutes to learn beforehand) to an ordinary person and he will usually remember 100% of the words, and can even remember them backwards or forwards in the correct order, or can easily name the 12th word, the 17th word, the 4th word, and so on.

This to me is very interesting. What if we learned a few of these basic techniques as a child so we could use and refine them naturally and routinely? I think that would make a big difference.

 

[Soapy Sam]

I think I used to know the answer to this.