1. Giraffes 2024

  Our memories are never as accurate as when the event occurred. While they can be close, as we move on in life as people, we tend to understand more about the situation and realize the values in our experiences. While in the moment we may feel sad and wonder why we still have these memories; however as time goes on and we reflect on these experiences, we learn a lot and it adds to our evolution as people. At the same time the memory with our friends can be perceived differently. For instance at a large hangout with people, many of us will see the event differently and see different values in what you did. The following image is a prime example of different views where people see a glass of water as half full or half empty. Both people are right yet each person has different values of importance. ( creducation ) Another instance is when me and my friends went to San Francisco as a group last summer. An example of us having different views would be when we split up to go explore and...

  Mahesh - Week 13: Memory in Popular Culture A few weeks ago, I was wondering what is the main composition of a personality, when I noticed that memory defines a person’s decision-making process and mental capabilities. I made this discovery after watching a Tamil movie with my family. In this movie, the protagonist can transmit his memory via a neurotransmitter that seeps into others’ brains and copies his memories superimposed upon others’ memories. In this way, he lived forever through the transmission of his memory which contained the sum of his personal experiences and his emotional background. This movie raised many questions including a potential application to the ever-present question of how to live forever. However, the ethical concerns of erasing another’s memories to transmit your own persist, making the research of this technology a very dangerous one. Research on memory and the subsequent effect of extending this memory to the pursuit of immortality can be a very int...

"Mirror, mirror on the wall", a famous line said by the evil queen. Everyone knows that phrase, but did you guys know that it isn't "mirror, mirror" and in fact "magic mirror". I know right, crazy. This is called the Mandela effect. The Mandela effect is essentially, where people remember an event or a certain object that never occurred. I personally find the Mandela effect fascinating, because everyone would believe in something that never existed. I would understand if only a handful of people believed that Mr. Monopoly wore a monocle. However, if almost 1 million believed that Jif was actually Jiffy, it definitely would have caught my attention, and it did.  I first found out about the Mandela effect when I was scrolling through TikTok. Some random dude showed up asking if the fruit of the Fruit of the Loom logo pours out of a cornucopia? Or if Fruit Loops was spelled Fruit Loops or Froot Loops? Or if Looney Toons was actually Looney Tunes? He just ...

Image credit The Rashomon effect is when people remember different versions of the same event. These versions may seem contradictory, yet none of those people are consciously lying. The name of this effect comes from Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film, Rashomon . In this movie, four distinct perspectives of a murder crime are portrayed, emphasizing how unreliable, subjective, and relative memory can be. This term reminds me of the story of six blind men feeling an elephant for the first time. Each man touches a different part, so they all have their own idea of what they're looking at. One man, touching the tail, thinks it's a snake; another, feeling the body, thinks it's a wall. All of them are interacting with the same object, yet they all perceive and remember it differently. The story serves to highlight the importance of broadening one's perspective; if the blind men had chosen to combine their perceptions, they might have come to the conclusion that the six individua...

People often describe how technology has made us more incapable of using our own mind and memory. However, technology and writing tools help humans improve the sciences and humanity much more than mental power does. This is because our devices and tools allow us to preserve information in a physical, reliable place.   Memory has played an immense role in shaping historical ideas. Although it is not reliable, it was commonly used in the past to progress in the humanities and fields of research. Many years ago, historians and scientists had to rely on written word to understand what events and scientifical advancements had occured. Because cameras and digital technology had not been invented yet, most scientists used their memory and mentally kept track of experiment data. Similarly, historians had to recall which events had occured in the past because of the lack of substantial written material on the topic.   A study on memory and the past describers “researchers [who studied]...

Imagine this: you're hanging out with your family, surrounded by the closest to you sharing stories and laughter. Suddenly someone mentions a childhood memory that everyone else remembers - but not you. Sound familiar? Let's uncover the science behind memory formation.  Memory formation is a dynamic process orchestrated by the complex neuronal networks and metabolic processes of the brain. Neurons are specialized cells that use electrical signals to communicate, and they are at the center of memory creation.  Neurons in different parts of the brain activate when we have new experiences, encoding the experiences into neural representations. Memory development is mostly dependent on synaptic plasticity, or the way the synapsis can become stronger or weaker in response to activity. The repeated activation of brain circuits can strengthen synaptic connections through processes such as long-term potentiation, which makes information flow. Neuron transmitters can effectively facilit...

Memory is deceptive. Things that we remember from our past might not be true at all. I have a vivid memory of a friend coming over to my house when I was around 6 years old. We were hanging out on my balcony with our bikes. I was extremely jealous of her fancy Cinderella themed bike because it had a mini carriage in the front that could hold a little doll. She didn’t have a doll in it so I brought a stuffed animal from my room to put into the carriage. I remember her taking it and playfully pretending to throw it over the balcony into a small stream below.  I told my parents about this memory years later and they had no recollection of this event, despite them being there the whole time. They claimed that our balcony never overlooked a stream.  Puzzled, I told my friend about this event, asking her if she remembered it. She did not remember this occurring and claimed that she had never even owned a Cinderella bike.  How could something so vivid in my mind not have existed...

I read the Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller a long time ago when I was in seventh grade. Although I enjoyed the book then I don't think it was as good as it could have been now.  I enjoyed the idea behind the story which basically turns a classic, age-old tale into a story about love and tragedy, but the execution of the book fell very flat to me with only a few parts of the story standing out while the rest was just monotonous.  Despite this, one part of the book has stuck with me all this time. When the spirit of Patroclus, at the end of the book, is sitting down with Thetis at Achilles' statue and he's telling her about Achilles, Thetis asks him if he has any more stories and he replies. "I am made of memories"  I have thought about this quote constantly for the past six years in many many different contexts. It always comes back to me. I feel like sometimes when you're in a moment and you look around you and realize that this is one of those moments tha...

  People use their memory every day to remember people’s names or recall what they need to do. Memory gives us the ability to observe something and come back to it later. It offers a place for one to store any feelings, ideas, or experiences they may have. Unfortunately, many people often do not value their memory and brain until they start to lose it. In addition, they lack the gratitude they should have for their life and health. These people do not realize that their memory is a temporary gift that will eventually fade and worsen over time.   Having a good memory is a very important part of one’s health. Doctors and pediatricians often reccomend solving puzzles and brain games to exercise your mind. This is because the only way to maintain your brain power and memory is to use it often.   In recent years, more and more people have started relying on technology to remember things for them. This reliance on technology causes people to not exercise their brain power. As a...