Memory

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

Andrew Clarke Walser wrote:
> 
> On Wednesday, 8 September 1999, Richard Romeo wrote:
> 
>  again, science is fooling around with things it shouldn't--giving humans
>  enhanced memory will destroy imagination--we'll all wind up like Hal in IJ.
>  More is Less
> 
>         Yes -- or perhaps we will end up like Funes the Memorious, in
> Borges's story.  As the narrator notes:  "To think is to forget a
> difference, to generalize, to abstract.  In the overly replete world of
> Funes there were nothing but details, almost contiguous details."
> 
>                                         Andrew Walser




In Plato's Phaedrus, Socrates relates the story of King
Thamus and the god Theuth. 

Now in those days the god Thamus was the king of the whole
country of Egypt; and he dwelt in that great city of Upper
Egypt which the Hellenes call Egyptian Thebes, and the god
himself is called by them Ammon.  To him came Theuth and
showed his inventions, desiring that the other Egyptians
might be allowed to have the benefit of them; he enumerated
them, and Thamus enquired about their several uses, and
praised
some of them and censured others, as he approved or
disapproved of them. 
It would take a long time to repeat all that Thamus said to
Theuth in
praise or blame of the various arts.  But when they came to
letters, This,
said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them
better memories;
it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. 
Thamus replied:  O
most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is
not always the
best judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions
to the users
of them.  And in this instance, you who are the father of
letters, from a
paternal love of your own children have been led to
attribute to them a
quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours
will create
forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not
use their
memories; they will trust to the external written characters
and not
remember of themselves.  The specific which you have
discovered is an aid
not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your
disciples not truth,
but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of
many things and
will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient
and will
generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company,
having the show of
wisdom without the reality.


 His argument against letters, writing, books, novels, is
flawed. Not because he claims that letters, writing, books,
novels will damage the memory and create false wisdom. For
it is easily demonstrated that writing has had these
effects. His argument is flawed because it considers ONLY
the burden and not the blessings of writing. With 20/20
hindsight we can not imagine that the negatives of
introducing writing to a culture could equal, let alone
surpass the benefits. Every technology is both a burden and
a benefit. We must decide if we want them before they are 
introduced. Once they are introduced to a culture, they will
evolve with it and we can not know for certain what burdens
and benefits they will bring. Tough decisions. Hey, that's
why they pay gods and kings the big bucks.


"my memory, sir, is like a garbage disposal". --Funes

TF