What happens to our memory as we age? | Hacker News Reader

What happens to our memory as we age?

scopeblog.stanford.edu

14 pointsshsachdev7 comments

This seems like a shallow take on a complex subject.

It seems overly simplistic to unilaterally claim that our brains decline past age 30.

Sure, under some metrics. Under others they improve [1].

There's a reason why we don't put 20 year olds in charge of our nuclear arsenal, for example - and it has nothing to do with the ability to remember a sequence of 7 numbers instead of 6.

[1]https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/why-you-should-...

> There's a reason why we don't put 20 year olds in charge of our nuclear arsenal, for example

Articles touches upon that:

> I don't think any of us would trade our lived experience for a faster-working brain.

Wow, I think a lot of us would exchange their lived experiences with anything, even pay to get rid of them. Although most people try to get over it at work, most people aren’t well, mentally-wise.

That sounds a bit hyperbolic to me. There's not a whole lot I would wanna exchange my experiences for.

Basically we're talking about traveling back in time but forgetting all your memories after that point. And without those memories you'd just end up at exactly the same spot where you now are, wouldn't you? Assuming the universe is deterministic. Which paradoxically means you actually cherish those lived experiences so much that you wanna relive them. ;)

I'm still 35, so probably don't count, but I would never trade "me" today for "me at age 20"

No way. In my 50s and I don't perceive any loss yet so maybe that's why. Sure, sometimes it takes a few seconds to bring up some random fact. I need to wait for the 'recall relay' to finish in my brain, which must be chemically based because if electrical it would only take a second to remember. Somewhere there's a neuron that 'knows' that answer, probably hundreds of them. Somehow I know that I know it, but I don't know the specifics yet until it presents itself. But to trade an instant recall for lived experience, knowledge, and know-how? Never. Better to know how than what. Better to know why than how. Better to know the map than the road name, every time.

It’s not that my memory is bad; I just stop giving a damn.

If it’s important, someone will remind me.

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