Very short memories
Muse #426 - really short and extremely bad retention
Human memories are short and they dissipate and degrade over time. They are really really short. To test this. Quick. Think about what you did Sunday afternoon? What about last Wednesday in the morning? That is what I thought.
I recently took my mother-in-law out to the driver’s license office to renew her Health card which is required for government services here. It was a fantastic day with a marvelous 18c (about 70f) temprature. Considering that the temperature was below ice point for the last few weeks, it was a sea change. And she asked me whether I would be turning off the heating system. The thing is the prognosis for the following days was back to last week’s colder weather pattern.
Once we experience something, we want more of it. And instantly forget the elements of the past, even though it was just a few days ago. And also additionally set up an idealistic expectation of today to reflect in the future - where the next few days were as bad as the previous week. Our expectations are not based on true realities of zig-zag up-down changes - we want flat line change and we would prefer that today. Perhaps even right now, please.
And we easily forget the past and want more of something we experience now or recently idealistically even though it does not reflect reality. And we need triggers to bring back old memories though we can never experience the past - and what we imagine is a poor reconstruction of some fragments of things that are abstractly stored.
Oh, us poor human design. Why are we designed this way?