Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Consciousness and memory

15.1 Momentary mental state
15.2 Self-examination
15.3 Memory
15.4 Memories of memories
15.5 The immanence illusion
15.6 Many kinds of memory
15.7 Memory rearrangements
15.8 Anatomy of memory
15.9 Interruption and recovery
15.10 Losing track
15.11 The recursion principle

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15.3 Memory, p 153
For example, we often hear of people with "photographic
memories" that enable them to quickly memorize all the fine
details of a complicated picture or a page of text in a few
seconds. So far as I can tell, all of these tales are unfounded
myths, and only professional magicians or charlatans can produce
such demonstrations.
[...] our various agencies selectively decide, unconsciously, to
transfer only certain states into their long-term memories -
perhaps because they have been classified as useful, dangerous,
unusual, or significant in other respects. It would be of little
use for us to simply maintain vast stores of unclassified
memories if, every time we needed one, we had to search through
all of them.
[Any *evidence* that does not fit with the theory is
eliminated... Computer as model...]

15.4 Memories of memories, p 154
To remember an early experience, you must be able not only to
"retrieve" some old records, but to reconstruct how your earlier
mind reacted to them -and to do that, you would have to become
an infant again. To outgrow infancy, you have to sacrifice your
memories because there written in an ancient script that your
later selves can no longer read.