In “Funes the Memorious” writer Jorge Luis Borges imagines a man who remembers everything with perfect clarity. For Borges a perfect memory wouldn’t mean a handy way to count cards or a one way ticket to straight A’s. It would mean that you are forever trapped in an infinite succession of moments. Someone who remembered everything perfectly, Borges suggests, would see each new moment as something entirely new. For Funes the Memorius, he doesn’t have one hand, he has a new hand, each one astonishing in its unique presentation. Every moment is a new world. It is overwhelming. Funes must hide himself away, exhausted by everything.
For the rest of us, this is not an issue. Do we remember what we had for lunch a week ago? How does memory even work? Here’s more from Science Focus:
There’s a basic misconception about memory that it’s akin to a video recording. It’s not: memory is more of an active reconstruction of what happened. From this mistaken metaphor, people have the idea that some other individuals can glance at something and then recall every detail with perfect accuracy.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
