The memorious
“Funes the Memorious” has long been one of my favorite short stories by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. In it, Borges describes a fictional character who has an accident and becomes unable to forget anything:
Funes…reveals that, since his fall from the horse, he perceives everything in full detail and remembers it all. He remembers, for example, the shape of clouds at all given moments, as well as the associated perceptions (muscular, thermal, etc.) of each moment. Funes has an immediate intuition of the mane of a horse or the form of a constantly changing flame that is comparable to our (normal people’s) intuition of a simple geometric shape such as a triangle or square.
In order to pass the time, Funes has engaged in projects such as reconstructing a full day’s worth of past memories (an effort which, he finds, takes him another full day), and constructing a “system of enumeration” that gives each number a different, arbitrary name. Borges correctly points out to him that this is precisely the opposite of a system of enumeration, but Funes is incapable of such understanding.
Funes is an extreme example of memory run amok to the point of being dysfunctional. But there are real people who are only a bit less memorious than Funes, although they seem to keep their abilities compartmentalized so that they don’t take over their lives. “60 Minutes” had a fascinating piece on them that aired last night, featuring five people who have Rainman-like capabilities but are not autistic (one is a well-known actress).
Here’s a bit about them and the genesis of the show [NOTE: That video seems to have disappeared, so I’m linking to one of the show itself]:
A personal note: I exhibit a small area of strangely enhanced memory myself, although nothing remotely as impressive as theirs. I often remember what I wore, especially if it was during emotional or important situations. I sometimes remember what others around me wore, too.
This ability goes back to early childhood. It is mostly a visual thing, although I also recall parts of the conversation pretty clearly, especially if it was upsetting (the “60 Minutes” piece said that adrenalin enhances memory, and I believe it). For me the memory of the event often includes the setting in which it took place, where I was standing, where the other person was standing, what I was wearing, and sometimes what they were wearing.
For example, I have a memory of an argument with my mother when I was about two. I was objecting to something she wanted me to do, much in the way of the typical two-year-old. We were standing on the porch in the summertime, and I had on a yellow skirt decorated with red rickrack.
There is no photo of the scene to jog my memory, nor even a photo of the skirt, but I remember it well. Plus, there’s no one around who can correct me or tell me I’m wrong. My mother was the only witness, and she’s almost 97. What’s more, she hardly remembered it in the first place—it just wasn’t significant to her, and she doesn’t have that sort of visual memory.
I also remember—or believe I remember—every article of clothing I ever owned. One would think that I place extraordinary emphasis on clothes and am exceptionally interested in them. But no, not in the least; I’m about average in the respect.
[NOTE: Here’s a Wiki article on the type of memory exhibited by the people in the “60 Minutes” piece. It’s considered exceedingly rare.]
“This ability goes back to early childhood.” And is one of the more exasperating abilities a child can have. Admit it. It drove your parents crayzzzy.
I have proven that i have the curse of memory…
way too much and have no way to know which false set of facts is which set someone else operates on…
I have bizarrely strong memories from when I was a toddler. Once, as an adult in my thirties, I walked with my father in a neighborhood I’d not seen since I was 3. We paused at a house and he told me about a friend of my mother’s who’d lived their in 1965. I told him I’d been in that house and described it perfectly, from the iron spiral stair case to the fact that the kitchen was on the second floor….it was a split level house. He was impressed, and said, “You were only in that house, once.” True, but I remember the day vividly. The children we’d played with, the games we’d played, even the moments we went to the bathroom all stand out in my mind. I can’t for the life of me figure out why.
As a police detective, I find this type of recall fascinating and wish that I had such an ability. In my job it would be extraordinarily useful.
I watched the 60 minutes story and was very intrigued by it. I have interviewed hundreds if not thousands of witnesses, victims and suspects over the last 25 years and never found anyone exhibiting memory abilities even close to that displayed by the subjects featured in the broadcast.
I agree with Leslie (sp?) : I would love to have a memory like they do, and exactly by same reason.
As is now, my mother remembers more of the events in our lives and in the lives of extended family members than I do; for instance, she remembers all birthday dates for all her cousins and all my cousins, and particularities of biographies of my father’s aunt-by-marriage’s step children!
As to type of memory – I, too, have visual one; I, too, remember all the clothes I was wearing, especially in childhood, and my mom’s clothes, and even my grandma’s, and my dear late uncle’s motobike (he was 16 at the time, and I was 6…), and sometimes when I woke up at night and it is very dark in the room, I momentarily forget where I am and I recall the room of many years ago, and expect the windows to be in the wrong place…
I’m guessing there are detrimental side effects to such a memory if one took the time to explore these people and their personalities in depth. Gifts like these aren’t only assets and there always seems to be a tradeoff for such.
SteveH: I’m pretty sure all the people profiled by 60 minutes except for Mary Lou Henner said they are single. But I’m not certain.
I guess I can’t remember 🙂
I am the one with the photographic memory who fills in what relatives and old classmates have forgotten, though I do not have the early childhood memory that Jewel, for example, has.
Some four decades ago there was a tragic auto accident in my hometown where 4-5 adolescents were killed. I knew some of the people killed, and several of the survivors – though they were not my age.
I thought I correctly remembered where and when the accident occurred. When I recently read a written account of the accident, I realized that I had misplaced the place by four miles and the time by a month. Fading memories…
Scott and Steve H: all the people except Henner were single.
“”all the people except Henner were single.””
Well there you go. They probably all fall short in the category of forgive and forget. Couldn’t you imagine vividly recalling every disrespecting moment a friend or spouse ever sent your way?
Couldn’t you imagine vividly recalling every disrespecting moment a friend or spouse ever sent your way?
i dont have to imagine it…
i also relive really horrible things, like EMT events, and all kinds of stuff that you would rather forget, in high detail
socially, it sucks, as others dont have your memory for facts, details, etc…
the Phd academic friend is completely floored by it, as he has seen me devour years worth of information in a week or two and then be able to refer back to it, or refer to papers i read in the library when i was 18 (then find them again!)
even more frustrating is that i am told that i am like everyone else!!!!! and that i CANT do what i do (we are all equal after all)
MANY social problems for not forgetting and memorizing the wrong facts which change over progressive time…
i also have math skills, i can see mathematical landscapes and so forth.
I was destined for academia, till they decided the world had too many
and i have been stuck ever since…
not in the right place and its not pleasant what average people do to you.
the most ‘tolerant’ are often the least tolerant…
oh, i should point out that i have to live by other rules that other people dont have to live with.
for instanc,e the girl at work can work on projects at her desk that are not work related.
i on the other hand, cant work on non work related projects at home, without approval.
she and others can have friends at work
i on the other hand, cant have friends since they want my boss to sit in on any lunches or dinners to track and monitor my non work related projects.
a guy today asked if i could help him with his churches website (he happens to be a preacher of african lineage). i cant my boss wants to sit in on anything like that…
another phd in the hospital wants to team up with me and discuss ideas, and i had to nix the friendship. since to sit and have our first lunch after we were introduced my boss wants to sit in.
people make up all kinds of rules for me that others dont have to comply with, and there is little i can do about that…
also no one partners…
they either diddle, or steal…
your ability attracts both…
in another path i would have done a lot better, rather than either be a target or novelty, or be suffocated on the outside chance i would let someone sit in on personal relationships in case i generate a good idea they can use…
teaming up and making something happen never entered their mind!!!! remove me, or take what i have is the only thing they can think of.
sigh
This reminds me of Robert Heinlein’s book, Stranger in a Strange Land. There were lots of things about that book I didn’t like so much, such as grokking and communal living with Valentine Michael Smith. But one thing I liked very much, which appears earlier in the book, is the concept of the Fair Witness. Fair Witnesses were people with extraordinary photographic and auditory memories who had been trained to use their capabilities to provide testimony to events and interactions among people, all of which could be certified in a court of law because of the memory and its training. Fair Witnesses observed everything, omitted nothing from recall, interpreted nothing, and drew no conclusions. In the book’s several scenes where the Fair Witness functioned, I found the narrative to become riveting, amazed at the nature and content Heinlein’s created people displayed. It reminds me, now, of what some commentors here are saying.
I have similar memories of my childhood to the ones neo describes, in similar detail and of similar early provenance, some going back to my first two years or so. It always amazes me that other people do not recall as much as I do, because it seems so ordinary to me–like pushing “play” on a recorder. My first husband used to marvel at what he called my flawless sequential memory. Oh well. Much good may it do me! But it is a fascinating trait.
I missed the 60 Minutes segment, though. I saw it advertised, got a chill from it, and decided not to watch.
I saw Marilu Henner on David Letterman many, many years ago talking about this. But as I recall it, at the time I think she only emphasized the fact that she could remember what she had worn on every day of her life in living memory. I don’t remember her claiming she could remember all the other details of those days. Of course, I could be mistaken about that. I think this was at least 20 years ago.
And, to finish my thought above, I knew Neo was talking about Marilu Henner (“one is a well-known actress”) before I even played the video because that is one David Letterman segment I’ve never forgotten.
One of such cases is described in detail by famous Russian psychologist Luria in his book named “A little book about a big memory”. The man was a professional mnemonist, he made performances where he demonstrated ability to recollect vast tables of completely random numbers. His name was Shereshevsky, and he also could perceive smells of colors, color of numbers and texture of musical notes – what is called synesthesia. Wrighter Nabokov and composer Skryabin also had some of these abilities.
“I’m pretty sure all the people profiled by 60 minutes except for Mary Lou Henner said they are single. But I’m not certain.
I guess I can’t remember ”
============
I think that a dysfunctional memory is absolutely essential to a functional marriage.
At least for the husband, it is.
I wonder if these individuals also possess superior ability to remember future events: dentist appointments, haircuts, etc?
There was/is a woman who has memorized the telephone directory, and she works as an operator. i cant remember if she was in hong kong or japan…
the memory is not perfect. while i can recall text books, pages, and even read the page sometimes, i cant remember names of people until a period of time and use has passed.
i can see or walk through mathematical landscapes that tell me whether complicated math is valid or not. (ergo my recent work in ALife – but being out of the loop, there is no place to present it. we really dont allow unapproved publishers as we did back when people like ramanujan were alive)
i can memorize lots of music, lyrics, etc. friends used to play games with it on rainy days when we were stuck in doors and couldnt get a car lift to some common place. they would take their parents 45 albums and would give me the title and artist, and i would sing the lyrics or the music. and they would play the album to verify.
when your a child this kind of thing is even more amazing. but its depressing when you get older, as you have geniuses like Obama making claims to the same skills and obviously not have them. so what once shows your promise and uniqueness, gets pummeled in a world where equality is the new order (so cut those tall poppies down), and now everyone claims to be a super genius… (as a plain old genius wont do any more). meanwhile us with such odd talents dont think its genius, just a talent or skill, and never make such claims based on the existence of the talents, and not their usage.
Tried to find me an executive position
But no matter how smooth I talked
They wouldn’t listen to the fact that I was a genius
The man say, “We got all that we can use.”
Now I got them steadily depressin’, low down mind messin’
Working at the car wash blues
like a seed planted in the sand instead of fertile soil, the promise that is in youth is drowned out by everyone making claims to grab the same prizes!!!
the people who couldnt do the work, will stand next to someone that can, and will claim ability they dont have..
given that social skills mean more than real skills, these now dominate more as they are selected more.
back when merit was the order of the day, instead of aesthetics of race, gender, etc… one could prove ability… now such proof attempts are just a form of racism, gender apartheid, and oppressive patriarchal meritocratic oppression…
sheesh…
There’s a street performer here in Boulder who remembers zip codes. He asks people in the crowd to tell them their zip code and he places them on a map he’s drawn on the sidewalk. After he has about 25 people standing on the map he weaves a little story incorporating the neighborhoods they’re from, usually citing some local landmark, a restaurant, a bar or something. More here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4809365
Me? I remember jokes. I can usually remember where I was when I first heard it and who told it to me and what other jokes I heard at that time. Ask me straight out to tell you a joke, and I can’t remember one. But if something triggers an association a particular joke, the floodgates open. If I read a joke, I usually don’t remember it.
I have a good memory on the whole, but not an impressively exceptional one. The one “exception” to that — an area where I’m fairly sure I rank far beyond average, is spacial memory.
I’ve got next to no problem remembering spaces and space-related things. I can recall the floor plan of every house I’ve lived in since I was two (I can recall where the phone was located when I was two, back in the era when one only had one phone in the house). My mother has confirmed this.
I can “drive” somewhere in my head, generally counting lights and landmarks along the way, even if I’ve only been there once before during daylight.
I’ve also found this to be a substantial advantage in “first-person shooter games”, in that I learn layouts much faster than others.
I’d speculate that many probably have one or more areas of exceptional capability when it comes to remembering something.
IGotBupkes:
same thing; I remember plans I drew for projects of 10 and 15 years ago, and even not the ones I drew. I might not remember people who worked with me on said projects or the Client contacts, though.
2 months ago while working on short contract for architectural Co I discovered they were renovating NY headquarters of a Company I was worked at 11 years ago. When I heard the address, I immediately had the picture of the floor plan (about 4000s.f.) in my mind, and said: “ah, is that the building shaped like shallow elongated “U”, with public restrooms on each floor facing each other across that yard? And they have an additional cyclone to HV/AC for those restrooms? and the window frames are arched and 9′ off the floor” Are you still using the Ovalyn undermount sinks by American Standard that I’ve specified in 1999?”
I would have been interested to hear what the down-side is. I had a photographic memory for almost 45 years. It took me more than 10 years to get over a relationship that had only lasted 2 because the pain remained as fresh later as it had been on the first day.
I also remember–or believe I remember–every article of clothing I ever owned.
Underwear? Socks? Shoes? Gloves? Bathrobes?
Rich Rostrom: clothing, not accessories.
When I was younger my memory was truly photographic – it is one way I was able to excel in math and science – I could literally see the textbook page in my head and recreate it.
For example, I learned all of my first semester of histology in medical school in one night.
Over the years, I still can remember many, but not all of the thousands of patients I have seen. I can recall many of their CT or MRI films, their examinations, and lab results, etc.
There are though many times, when I try, I can recreate a moment, in 3rd grade, 6th grade, high school, summer camp,etc. exactly.
It’s not an easy thing to cope with when you’re young, to not be able to “forget.”
I appreciate my benign senescence. Or perhaps I have stopped paying attention.
Either way, it’s a gift-curse.
I just kept wondering – do Leslie Stahl and Barbara Walters have the same plastic surgeon?