Perfect memory

[Jesin]

This just popped up on news.yc, and I thought people here might have something to say about it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1940420/The-woman-who-can-remember-everything.html

 

[loveofreason]

I'm actually stunned.

When I stop and think what it would mean to have perfect recall of every moment of my life, it's too much. To forget is bliss. To have no history; no trail of mistakes behind me - this is my aspiration!

As the woman herself describes, the paralysis of perfect memory would be a depressing agony.

***

What is it about the rest of us that lets us forget? How is memory created, stored and accessed?

 

[Ex-User (221)]

What is it about the rest of us that lets us forget? How is memory created, stored and accessed?

As far as I know, sleep has a lot to do with it.

Everyone knows that sleep is when your body heals itself, but it's also when your brain sorts out what happened to you when you were awake. It goes through everything that happened to you, and with the help of information that may not be accessible were you concious, decides what can should kept and what can be discarded.