Don't Take Me Seriously - Book - Page 292
People that study the insides of heads have sussed out that one human brain
might be able to store as much information as is currently zapping around on the
entire Internet. That’s a lot to store, and offers a lot of opportunity for error,
especially when you learn that this brain could do all this using no more power
than a dim light bulb. (So, when you call someone a “dim bulb,” you are actually
giving them a compliment. Millennials please pay no attention to this archaic
reference.)
OK, we have learned that cues and memories can be associated in an
unrealized, yet logical way, and therefore memories can pop up in a seemingly
random way. But I ask, might memories also be associated merely by being
stored “next” to each other in the brain?
Imagine two unrelated memory pizzas touching each other in the oven. When the
memory pizza chef takes out your sausage-and-cheese for delivery, some
pepperoni pulls off the memory next to it and comes with. This would be an
artificial association, but you could get stuck with it every time you order up the
sausage-and-cheese memory.
And, what if human memory is not set
up like a well organized card catalog at
a library. (Again, if you have never
heard of a card catalog or library, just
skip on by.) In fact, the head examiners
out there say that memory storage isn’t
a neatly compartmentalized thing. It
takes a village.
Storing a memory is a brain-wide
process, where different areas of old
sparky work together. Storage could be viewed like a spider web, where the
threads symbolize the various elements of a memory that connect to form the
whole.
But what if the strands of two different memory webs cross, causing a short? This
would be another artificial association, which could be reinforced by repetition.
On the other hand, while we know
memory storage is arranged for
functionality, might it just be a bit
random sometimes, like digital storage
fragmentation? Do any of you
remember defragging your computer’s
hard drive to increase storage space
and facilitate data recovery? Similar
fragmentation could be happening in
