The idea of memory-Defined within context to alzheimer's

[NJPunker23]

Alright, now listen im posting this to see how many people here at FA are wise. Well not just wise, but to see if one would take part in reading something from an otherworldliness, basically from the metaphysical realm. Its an short essay i did for my creative writing class. Its long, and you dont have to read it, but please dont flame or complain if you have not read the whole thing through.

As I write, this very moment, this instance this word, letter, comma, it is all transforming into memory. Moreover I am recalling to my memory for the very ideas to fill this blank space. So is that it? Memory is a cycle that recalls and stores? Well academically it cannot be considered a cycle for the Oxford English dictionary defines memory as Faculty of remembering, being mindful. Therefore according to the Oxford English dictionary remembering memory is to recall upon experience, also a state of being mindful; having your “mind” literally “full” or being aware of ones own past experiences. So if the intellects consider memory as faculty of recalling experience, how does a memory form?
Well to challenge the definition of memory (as according to the Oxford English dictionary) one must be fully ware of the notion of experience. We cannot have memory without experience. In our conscious state, our real life, we experience every second, then store this experience maybe not willingly but our experience is still stored thus committing itself to memory. Do you see the cycle now? We must experience to create memory; we cannot remember a memory unless we have experienced it.
So where does this state of being mindful fall into the cycle? If you consider the word mindful in the literal sense then you believe that our minds have a limited capacity. If you are more inclined to consider ‘mindful’ as a state everyone can achieve then you are mindful of yourself and your memories, in essence you are aware.
But see, this is were the conundrum exists it lies within our state of awareness, being mindful. How do we become mindful with out having memories that make us aware? Well simply we cannot, and again the cycle is prevalent.
To breakdown the cycle: One experiences, then experience transforms into memory, which then makes one mindful for they now have a memory to recall, one now has a sense of awareness because of a memory that stemmed from experience.
Socrates wanted people to become aware that they are all wise, to reach a state of awareness where we can think out concepts and recall these concepts usefulness in real life. In exactly the same manner as we recall a memory from a real life experience. We cannot remember a memory unless we have experienced it.
Could this be the fundamental ideology of Alzheimer’s? If a mother cannot remember her child’s name at the age of 90 is it because she never met her child, never gave her child a name? No it is not, because the 90-year-old mother has given birth to her child she has named her child, she has experiences! But she cannot recall them. Alzheimer’s seems to erase our state of awareness therefore removing our link to ones memories. This is why the mother stricken with Alzheimer’s can randomly recall memories, because when her state of awareness returns she now has access to her memories.
I would argue that Alzheimer’s is not an illness that erases memory, but an illness that debilitates (almost permanently) ones self-awareness. This concept of Alzheimer’s removing a person’s awareness debunks the Oxford English dictionaries definition of memory, in the context of being mindful. The mind constantly stores memory but it is our awareness that has direct access to our memory. So it is not our mind that can reach a capacity limit (‘mind’ being ‘full’ mindful) but it is our awareness that can wither preventing access to our memories.
-Jon C.

[Spin]

thats a very interesting read...and has a very good what i call..makes ya go hmmmmm point to it...very nice read

[W00D]

sorry,
all i read was blah blah blah im a dirty tramp
-Brian W.

[Sc0rPi0n]

There are a few grammatical and spelling errors you should correct. The essay itself is hard to follow, you use some big words, but in context, your points are rather simple. You should have made it clearer, given it a more defined thesis for the reader to follow. You should say "alzheimers is associated with ones lack of awareness".

Socrates never wanted to make it aware that people are all wise, but that everybody was an idiot. He was convinced that the world was intelligible and that man could ascertain truth, but that nobody had yet done this. If you ever read Plato's account of the trial of Socrates that will become apparent, because he is accused of not honoring the gods, and his rebuttle is that nobody knows what the gods want.

As for memory, it is clearly defined in psychology books. Some of the most famous psychologists in history tackled memory. Skinnerd, Freud, et cetera. They were behaviorists without any scientific proof until the turn of the century. The early psychologists discovered things like Primers theory. That long term memory is developed through conditioning. They established the three types of memories; sensory memory, working memory, and long term memory. In the late 20th century however we started using things like Xrays and cat scans to monitor someones mental state. Why? Because we know exactly how memory works, your brain through its nervous system creates an electrical impulse which registers one of the many memory compartments. Your conscious state will create an impulse, that will travel through the synapsis in your brain. Sort of like a key. Depending on the association and the importance of the event. This is your sub conscious memory that you are pulling from, which is where most of your long term memory is held. Sometimes these memories will never be used again.

I believe your theory on alzheimers is false. I have lived with a couple of people and have seen the natural evolution of the condition. They are completely aware, they just have problems associating. It will start off with them mispronouncing your name as somebody else when they know full well who you are, and correct themselves. "Timmy, I meant Paul, Bryan...ERRR" And then they will say your name. It is always someone you resemble. Its at the tip of their tongue they just can't spit it out. Eventually that will evolve into them saying your name wrong and not noticing it, but they still know you as who you are..and it happens in spurts. It happens most often when that person is stressed out. Eventually that will happen more and more frequently and get exponentially worse, and they worry about alot of things. Simple things too, the reason they are worrying is because they are afraid that the information is going to slip through their mind. Then thats when they start to completely drift. One minute you are talking to them about whats happening on television. They are enjoying themselves and having a good time, and then they will ask something that hasn't happened in decades, its quite weird. They have an altered state of reality, their long term memory starts interfering with their short term memory, to the point that they just don't know whats going on anymore. They get frustrated when you correct them, and eventually they just give up, and so do you. Straight to the nursing home they go.

This is all caused by the receptors in your memory glands and the impulses in your brain. They get weaker as you get older, and only the strongest short term memory cells hold together. Thats why it gets all jumbled up.

[Fallen JeStEr]

Originally Posted by W00D

sorry,
all i read was blah blah blah im a dirty tramp
-Brian W.

Hahahahahaha That was on today.

Too much reading Jon.

[lhurgoyf]

www.lhurg.com/cognition.jpg (this is used for a basis for HCI concepts when designing UI but it illustrates my point)

if you look at it from a cognitive science perspective the brain is just the same as a computer. Which is very logical seeing as how the things you do the most in life/frequently are the easiest to accomplish. If I try to go back and recall something I heard 5 years ago it will take a while but it will eventually dawn on me... as opposed to trying to remember how to do something I did yesterday.

I would not say experience translates to memories. You have memories of the event and can process information based on that. It is amazing what your brain does to accomplish a thought, but what is all boils down to is building relationships between what you know, what you predict and the risk you are willing to accept.

Alzheimer's is just corruption of your brain cells. I would call it disk fragmentation.

[KhaOZ]

I'm real busy but I felt compelled to post to say this:

You guys have shocked me here. I never realized there were so many gamers on these forums who aren't the typical idiot "I wtfpwnzered yo nubness" kinda people. I don't have time, nor the knowledge in this area, to get into this convo since I am currently working on the FA site, but your posts are good reads, and are quite a refreshing change from the typical "blah" on gamer forums :) Good stuff!

[IceBlade]

Very good essay but I'd have to agree with Scorp on that one. I'm too tired to think lol but Scorp made the point I was thinking of as I read.

[Sc0rPi0n]

This is kind of long, feel free to read. I typed this more because I like typing than anything else but it is definitely interesting if you take the time.

An interesting thing I learned long ago regarding memory, and I will often do this. Carry on a conversation with a person, and 15 minutes into the conversation what you are talking about has nothing to do with what you were initially talking about. You may be talking about dolphins, the reason you were talking about dolphins is because you were talking about the zoo you went to with Aunt Becky, you were talking about the zoo and Aunt Becky because someone asked you what you have been doing lately, someone asked you what you have been doing lately because you are talking about not getting out much, you are talking about not getting out much because you look sick, you are talking about looking sick because you were asking your buddy to set you up on a date, you were asking your buddy to set you up on a date because you were talking about how you are still a virgin.

See how that works? You go from somebody asking you about your virginity to talking about Dolphins. Those are the keys in your mind that fit in to one another. Another interesting point, is that the way you visualize things in your mind, there is no background or foreground, only the image of the thing that you are visualizing in its "universal form". In everybodies mind it is different. To some people when they think of a dolphin the image of a dolphins head comes up. To some people its Flipper, to others its a cartoony image. This is the same way your dreams work. There is no detail whatsoever. The other information doesn't matter so your brain doesn't even process that it is important. If you ever wake up from a dream and can remember it, you will never be able to describe any of the intricate details. The color of the sky, the way the persons hair looked, or even exactly what the guy you were talking to looked like. Your brain instead inserts the generic image that you have created in your mind of that person...and it can be anything. That is why people rarely wake up from dreams unless they are forced out from the outside world or their body tells itself it has enough sleep by registering pain in the back. Your mind has blocked out necessities, and it will use immediate short term memory to create a dream, usually whatever you witnessed or talked about that day will be jumbled together in one interesting collage of characters with little details..and it often makes for one crazy yet seemingly realistic adventure.

For instance, a dream I had there was a mexican with a mask on. The generic image of a mexican with a mask on comes into my head, and there is no detail what so ever. These are the images your brain uses to create dreams.

BTW, what I said at the beginning about tracking back your memories. People who have good social skills use this ALL THE TIME. Listen you gentlemen courters, always lead a girl in a conversation in the direction you want. You want her number right? You have to start WAY out in left field and eventually make your way to home plate. For instance, compliment your lady friend on her perfume, say it smells really nice. Unless she is a total bitch, she will feel flattered, and if there are other girls around a bit open(there is competition nearby). It doesn't matter if she openly says it or looks as if she thinks it, it is human nature! Now, lead the conversation. Ask her where she got it, and keep asking questions. The goal is to find something in common. "You got that perfume at Macy's?" Ouch, you don't know anything about Macy's. Its alright, just look kool and take your time, NEVER rush words with girls or you will look like a flamer(gay). Say something like "woooowww Macy's, whats the occasion", with sarcasm in your voice. This is called a tease, and women love it. Why? Because in the back of their mind they like naughty boys. Boys who took their toys away from them when they were little girls. This is the memory the sub consciously register, and no, they are not aware of why they feel that way.

Now, they answer you and say "no apparent reason", crack a joke. Say "yeah, I dress up and wear cologne for no apparent reason all the time too". Getting a girl to laugh is the key to getting them to like you. She will start to feel comfortable. You need to introduce yourself here and try to get her to tell you her name. Now start using it. It will again start to make the girl feel more comfortable around you. The next step is physical contact, WHICH YOU NEED TO AVOID until atleast the first date. Anyways, this will usually get them to retract their statement and modify it. "Well, you never know who may walk by". BINGO. Now, if she laughed at what you have been saying and is somewhat interested, you make your move, if the conversation is still kind of tense, you need to continue to talk. If you make your move, say something like "well it certainly is working". But more often then not, they still aren't very interested. So depending on where you are at, say something about your environment. Lets say you are at a grocery store, look in her cart. You see icecream. BINGO. Talk about the great flavors that company makes and ask her if thats her favorite icecream. Whenever you are talking to a girl they normally lead the conversation, they may talk about why they love that icecream, or why she bought that icecream. Listen intently and shove that information into your memory banks and hold it there, it will come in handy. Continue to talk and listen, keeping the conversation on the girl. Now you've won. The girl is obviously interested in talking to you, but YOU need to end the conversation and leave that girl wanting more. Say "I just remembered I have to cook dinner so I got to split. Hey, maybe I could call you sometime, I know the greatest ice cream shop that we could go to". BINGO

Wait a couple of days, call her up. "Sarah, this is Rob, the icecream guy?" She will remember you and giggle a little. Anyways, not going into what to do afterwards, but do you see how that trick works?

BTW, if the seas are rough bail. If you are obviously losing the fight get the hell out of Dodge. Don't make yourself look like an idiot, most of the girls you encounter are snobby ass bitches, who like to make people feel miserable, and no amount of courting you will do will change that. Move on



THE END