If only we could remember...

Originally posted by IMAdamnALIEN
reply to post by DragonsDemesne

 

But what about all the great minds that have this gift?

Do they not have an advantage over the non photographic memory people?

Im not buying the whole we have Google now so we don't need memory.

It doesn't make any sense to get rid of a Ferrari and trade it in for a pinto.

Thanks for the reply!

What about all the great minds that don't? It isn't an absolute indicator of intelligence, though I'm sure it's pretty awesome. I'm willing to bet that the main reason is that we use our brains for a lot more then chimps do. We are even more of social animals than chimps are. We have to know the faces of dozens, even hundreds of people, and know a language, sometimes more than one, and process the world as we see it through our eyes in full color at a much higher level of clarity than chimps have.

I seriously doubt a photographic memory was an evolutionary advantage. In the days before civilization, would it get you laid more often? I think not. You wouldn't be able to communicate your memory to anyone without a language. it certainly wouldn't save you from disease or injury.

My bet is that it got selected away in favor of far more useful traits, like being able to communicate with a language, or the ability to make and use tools more complicated than sticks, or the ability to learn how to farm to get food.

Really, a photographic memory is only particularly useful in a society. Outside one, it's just a mostly useless novelty. You might get lost less, but that's about it.

Originally posted by Trams
Oh, my. The Apes are going to take over, just like in Planet of the Apes!

But seriously. I think its because we have lost the ability to stay focused over the years. Because of all the electronics used in a negative way. Like T.V. or some types of music. Obviously it affects our Brain and nervous system. You don't need any links or scientific proof for that. It shows everywhere you go. Another thing that dumbs us down is drugs. Its medically proven that Heroine, Weed, and Meth affect the brain. It makes people who they are.

We technologically advanced through the midst 20th century. But we didn't take precautions, and realize what we were actually doing. Hopefully we can turn around, otherwise, it can lead to the destruction of the planet.

Nice Thread!

HINT:

People were around for a while before the fifties and sixties. They wrote books and letters and diaries, and some are even still alive from before then. I'll bet you a buck that most of them that don't have altimeters don't have a photographic memory. They grew up before TV and rock and roll. There even exist records of people who lived before radio was invented. Before jazz, the telegraph, the waltz, etc. People aren't much different today than ever before. There have always been drugs, greed, war, and anything else you can imagine. It might be easier to act on today, but people aren't any better or worse. The more things change, the more they stay the same, after all.

Sure it affects our brain, but it doesn't take away your photographic memory. Most people simply don't have one. Sucks for most people. It isn't recent phenomenon, though. I doubt we have any worse a memory than someone from the 1600s. Kids probably just remember a bunch of stupid useless crap from the TV instead of something useful from real life.

And of course weed and meth and heroine affect the brain. That's the freaking point. People don't stick needles in their arm because it feels good to have a steel tube in their arm.

A great subject to ponder about. I do not have a photographic memory, so I'm just speculating. But I would imagine it would be like owning a huge library. Just because you "own" the library doesn't mean you are a genius. In order to answer a question from your own pondering or a question asked by someone else, you'd have to go into the library, find the section pertaining to the subject, the book(s) that may hold the answer and skim through it until you find the relevant sentence(s) that hold the original answer. Now based on the person's response that has the photographic memory, he has to "visually" render this library and these processes with his brain in order to answer the question. This takes time, patience, and concentration. All of which we seem to value more and more to some extent, so we have taught ourselves to lose this feature in order to save us time and our patience.

Besides we would rather memorize Justin Timberlake's new song before we concentrate on saving the locations of our shoes, keys, remotes, etc. lol

I agree with the person who said that we don't need it as much as the chimp because we aren't being threatened by not knowing our surroundings as much. Because we can ask around to figure out how to locate where we are and where we need/want to go. Chimps can't really ask other chimps/animals where his local tree is... at least not very easily.

oh one more thing..

By mdiinican
And of course weed and meth and heroine affect the brain. That's the freaking point. People don't stick needles in their arm because it feels good to have a steel tube in their arm.

So true. Take me away from these damn mental annoyances oh great plant of this earth!

What a neat post! The valedictorian of my high school class, who I had known since I was 5, had a true photographic memory AND he was really smart otherwise (as far as applying what he had seen). I was always jealous of his memory. I'm pretty sure he did extremely well on his SAT's, and he was involved in sports and activities as well. He went to Princeton on scholarship.

I am going to agree with the other posters who said that because of our advanced language and our ability to record written information that biologically the need for a photgraphic memory has diminished over time. Just a guess though.

And I would still like to have one.