I’ve been watching a TV program about how to perfectly memorise large amounts of stuff, such as the order of cards in 20 packs of cards, for the world memory championships. According to the TV program anyone can do it.

I wouldn’t want to remember the order of cards in a deck, because it’s going to be different next time. I’ve been getting some interesting results asking people around here the question:

If you could have a perfect memory to remember anything you wanted, what would you personally choose to memorise?

things i had read about.

anything that is unchanging like the laws of nature

Instruction manuals for various electronic devices I own.

party_pants said:

Instruction manuals for various electronic devices I own.

hand on forehead

you’re not well, mate.

start remembering those pp, some of which are books, before you know it you’ll have multifunction buttons with 500 settings and they’ll give something resmbling a set of encyclopedias to go with them.

:)

transition said:

party_pants said:

Instruction manuals for various electronic devices I own.

hand on forehead

you’re not well, mate.

Maybe just getting old.

party_pants said:

Instruction manuals for various electronic devices I own.

Nice. I like it.

My first thought was to memorise all 2,300 mathematical equations in the “Princeton Guide to Advanced Physics”. In case you’re wondering where all those come from. General maths (Fourier, Green, Laplace, Vector, Tensor) 186 equations. Then classical mechanics, electrodynamics, optics, fluid, plasma, relativity, quantum, atomic, nuclear, statistical physics, solid-state. I’d love to go to a memory expert and watch him have a heart attack trying to figure out how to memorise quantum mechanics.

But really, I seldom use those. My next thought was to memorise the scientific names for the tree of life. Perhaps not all 1.5 million species, but at least the most commonly encountered 10,000 species, enough to recognise all the garden plants, weeds, pests, common wild plants and fungi, and creatures on wildlife documentaries.

My daughter’s contribution was that she’d like to memorise all the metabolic processes going on in a cell (in order to pass her Uni subject).

My wife’s contribution was that she’d like to memorise the lyrics of all the melodies she knows – she’s a musician, not a singer.

Well known examples of what people around the world have already memorised using memory techniques include: periodic table, the yellow pages, all the plays of Shakespeare, 111,700 digits of pi.

ChrispenEvan said:

things i had read about.

that also means that you will remember reading some of the posters here.. :/

What was the question?

What was the question again?

i’m happy remembering the uncertainties in the orders of intentionality last attributed to this and that, some of which regards i’d be happier again to forget the details of in their entirety.

mollwollfumble said:

I’ve been watching a TV program about how to perfectly memorise large amounts of stuff, such as the order of cards in 20 packs of cards, for the world memory championships. According to the TV program anyone can do it.

I wouldn’t want to remember the order of cards in a deck, because it’s going to be different next time. I’ve been getting some interesting results asking people around here the question:

If you could have a perfect memory to remember anything you wanted, what would you personally choose to memorise?

well ideally I would want to memorise all things that would need to be recalled in the instance where I did not have the ability to search reference materials

mollwollfumble said:

party_pants said:

Instruction manuals for various electronic devices I own.

Nice. I like it.

My first thought was to memorise all 2,300 mathematical equations in the “Princeton Guide to Advanced Physics”. In case you’re wondering where all those come from. General maths (Fourier, Green, Laplace, Vector, Tensor) 186 equations. Then classical mechanics, electrodynamics, optics, fluid, plasma, relativity, quantum, atomic, nuclear, statistical physics, solid-state. I’d love to go to a memory expert and watch him have a heart attack trying to figure out how to memorise quantum mechanics.

But really, I seldom use those. My next thought was to memorise the scientific names for the tree of life. Perhaps not all 1.5 million species, but at least the most commonly encountered 10,000 species, enough to recognise all the garden plants, weeds, pests, common wild plants and fungi, and creatures on wildlife documentaries.

the thing is there really isn’t any need to memorise these sorts of facts simply because it’s unlikely you’ll ever have to recall them on the sport without being able to reference other materials.

diddly-squat said:

mollwollfumble said:

party_pants said:

Instruction manuals for various electronic devices I own.

Nice. I like it.

My first thought was to memorise all 2,300 mathematical equations in the “Princeton Guide to Advanced Physics”. In case you’re wondering where all those come from. General maths (Fourier, Green, Laplace, Vector, Tensor) 186 equations. Then classical mechanics, electrodynamics, optics, fluid, plasma, relativity, quantum, atomic, nuclear, statistical physics, solid-state. I’d love to go to a memory expert and watch him have a heart attack trying to figure out how to memorise quantum mechanics.

But really, I seldom use those. My next thought was to memorise the scientific names for the tree of life. Perhaps not all 1.5 million species, but at least the most commonly encountered 10,000 species, enough to recognise all the garden plants, weeds, pests, common wild plants and fungi, and creatures on wildlife documentaries.

the thing is there really isn’t any need to memorise these sorts of facts simply because it’s unlikely you’ll ever have to recall them on the sport without being able to reference other materials.

I can’t quite agree with you there. Just because there are 2,300 physics equations in a book, doesn’t mean that I could find even half of them on the web.

Essentially ditto for tree of life. It was quite a heck of a task even trying to identify common weeds using information on the web. I ended up buying books, you know, book, those paper things, “A field guide to insects in Australia” and “How to identify and control more than 150 common weeds and invasive plants in Australia”.

And when it isn’t on the web, that does make searching for it just that teensy bit more difficult.

mollwollfumble said:

diddly-squat said:

mollwollfumble said:

Nice. I like it.

My first thought was to memorise all 2,300 mathematical equations in the “Princeton Guide to Advanced Physics”. In case you’re wondering where all those come from. General maths (Fourier, Green, Laplace, Vector, Tensor) 186 equations. Then classical mechanics, electrodynamics, optics, fluid, plasma, relativity, quantum, atomic, nuclear, statistical physics, solid-state. I’d love to go to a memory expert and watch him have a heart attack trying to figure out how to memorise quantum mechanics.

But really, I seldom use those. My next thought was to memorise the scientific names for the tree of life. Perhaps not all 1.5 million species, but at least the most commonly encountered 10,000 species, enough to recognise all the garden plants, weeds, pests, common wild plants and fungi, and creatures on wildlife documentaries.

the thing is there really isn’t any need to memorise these sorts of facts simply because it’s unlikely you’ll ever have to recall them on the sport without being able to reference other materials.

I can’t quite agree with you there. Just because there are 2,300 physics equations in a book, doesn’t mean that I could find even half of them on the web.

Essentially ditto for tree of life. It was quite a heck of a task even trying to identify common weeds using information on the web. I ended up buying books, you know, book, those paper things, “A field guide to insects in Australia” and “How to identify and control more than 150 common weeds and invasive plants in Australia”.

And when it isn’t on the web, that does make searching for it just that teensy bit more difficult.

‘reference material’ doesn’t equal ‘the web’…

poikilotherm said:

mollwollfumble said:

diddly-squat said:

the thing is there really isn’t any need to memorise these sorts of facts simply because it’s unlikely you’ll ever have to recall them on the sport without being able to reference other materials.

I can’t quite agree with you there. Just because there are 2,300 physics equations in a book, doesn’t mean that I could find even half of them on the web.

Essentially ditto for tree of life. It was quite a heck of a task even trying to identify common weeds using information on the web. I ended up buying books, you know, book, those paper things, “A field guide to insects in Australia” and “How to identify and control more than 150 common weeds and invasive plants in Australia”.

And when it isn’t on the web, that does make searching for it just that teensy bit more difficult.

‘reference material’ doesn’t equal ‘the web’…

Songs and poems.

mollwollfumble said:

I ended up buying books, you know, book, those paper things, “A field guide to insects in Australia” and “How to identify and control more than 150 common weeds and invasive plants in Australia”.

Hmm. Most of what I have in my head came from books and life itself. I merely use the net today like a dictionary, to check If I have the right name or concept.

>Most of what I have in my head came from books and life itself

projectin’ so the tabula rasa
we’s hope it ain’t contagious
ol’ born with some structure
neuron a modest contingent

poikilotherm said:

mollwollfumble said:

And when it isn’t on the web, that does make searching for it just that teensy bit more difficult.

‘reference material’ doesn’t equal ‘the web’…

Having it on call in my head would help. Edison used to do it, remember as many unrelated facts as he could.

Another popular and useful memory trick is remembering languages.

I tend to remember processes more accurately than facts, processes like how to integrate, approximate, extrapolate, invert, safely apply feedback, analyse, optimise, simplify, assemble.

Have been looking on the web for people to teach me memory training. Didn’t see any.

transition said:

>Most of what I have in my head came from books and life itself

projectin’ so the tabula rasa
we’s hope it ain’t contagious
ol’ born with some structure
neuron a modest contingent

I could add that pianos and guitars and more often than not, harmonicas.
showed me the way.

Though as far as hearing goes, I’m half brain dead.

mollwollfumble said:

poikilotherm said:

mollwollfumble said:

And when it isn’t on the web, that does make searching for it just that teensy bit more difficult.

‘reference material’ doesn’t equal ‘the web’…

Having it on call in my head would help. Edison used to do it, remember as many unrelated facts as he could.

Another popular and useful memory trick is remembering languages.

I tend to remember processes more accurately than facts, processes like how to integrate, approximate, extrapolate, invert, safely apply feedback, analyse, optimise, simplify, assemble.

Have been looking on the web for people to teach me memory training. Didn’t see any.

It is about manifestation.. look it up.

Concentrate.

wish I could remember fallin’ asleep while asleep
maybe ponder all day while ‘wake why needed it
wish I could delve the oblivion’n spock mind meld
maybe ponder all day why some fades do forget
wish I could forget to remember what it all means
maybe ponder if one’d exist ‘out other a moment
wish I could enjoy the fade’n limits it so necessity
maybe ponder’n explore ideal of memory perfect

Being able to remember the names and locations of technical papers that I’d scanned and thought worth a closer look would do me.

Of course, being able to remember the whole paper word for word after a quick scan would be even better.

Being able to clearly remember all my dreams upon awakening would be appreciated.

Bubblecar said:

Being able to clearly remember all my dreams upon awakening would be appreciated.

I’m not sure that would be a good idea.

But anyway

Nightfall

I’d expect a lot of what is human is the work of holding memories (much of which requires effort over time), that this effort involved structuring (importance to functional purpose over different time scales etc), further i’d expect knowledge of (and internal observation of the workings) whether shortcomings or in/efficiencies or whatever to be attributes of self inidividuals work with/on.

So, If you had a perfect memory, whatever the fuck that might be, would you be human.

I’d expect too that memory fade probably had a handy bunch of tricks about it.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Being able to remember the names and locations of technical papers that I’d scanned and thought worth a closer look would do me.

Of course, being able to remember the whole paper word for word after a quick scan would be even better.

I can appreciate that. I was looking through my filing cabinet today (about 3 years since I last looked through), and thought “I don’t remember reading all those technical papers”.