Having images pinned to every day of my mental calendar for 2012 and 2013 is changing my perception of memory.
It is probably obvious, but memories are not captured moments of time, they are constructs.
Using my current refresh technique, I can recall all of the memory tags I use to remember the days that have passed since I began this process.
If I try to remember a day before I began this process, then generally I have no clue what I was doing on that particular day. With a bit of thought, I can work out where I was living, though as I move between my own country and my wife's even that is sometimes a challenge.
These older memories have faded not so much because of time's passing, but because I have not refreshed them. By refreshing a memory tag at least once per month, it remains with me. Perhaps as this process continues, memories will be entrenched in my long-term memory with less frequent refreshes.
Associated memories, which are triggered by these memory tags but not routinely refreshed, are another matter, of course.
The details I capture in the memory tags I expect to remain, because they are not really moments of time, they are constructs. I can remember them as well as I can remember facts, such as E=mc^2, or that Han Solo was played by Harrison Ford.
This concept is perhaps obvious, but it frees me from the idea that memories of past events will inevitably fade as time passes.
It is probably obvious, but memories are not captured moments of time, they are constructs.
Using my current refresh technique, I can recall all of the memory tags I use to remember the days that have passed since I began this process.
If I try to remember a day before I began this process, then generally I have no clue what I was doing on that particular day. With a bit of thought, I can work out where I was living, though as I move between my own country and my wife's even that is sometimes a challenge.
These older memories have faded not so much because of time's passing, but because I have not refreshed them. By refreshing a memory tag at least once per month, it remains with me. Perhaps as this process continues, memories will be entrenched in my long-term memory with less frequent refreshes.
Associated memories, which are triggered by these memory tags but not routinely refreshed, are another matter, of course.
The details I capture in the memory tags I expect to remain, because they are not really moments of time, they are constructs. I can remember them as well as I can remember facts, such as E=mc^2, or that Han Solo was played by Harrison Ford.
This concept is perhaps obvious, but it frees me from the idea that memories of past events will inevitably fade as time passes.
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