It would be very interesting to see if it's possible. Wouldn't it be better to base the memories on a more developed mind in which a person is more aware of the world and place he is? I might sound a bit repetitive and start to get on some peoples nerves with this but wouldn't childhood memories lack that sort of information?
Your mind as a time machine
- Thread starter kimberlyd
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Well, I can be a bit repetitive at times, too. So, this does does not bother me, especially if I am seriously interested in a subject.First, I agree childhood memories would lack some (or much) information. But here is what interests me, what about the chance to regain memories, provided you are not changing events. So, in response to your question about the benefit of going to a destination within our life that we do not recall so vividly, it provides an incentive and interest for me to go back to this point in time.
Neurons are being formed/created (neurogenesis) during the development of a fetus. When you are born, you have, pretty much*, all of the neurons you will have for the rest of your life. A fetus is cognitively unaware but, will have reflexive motor neurons and "react" to stimulus. That may be what Dr. Tillet was explaining to you.*New studies seem to have shown neurogenesis, in rats, and possibly humans can take place in certain areas of the brain.
I offered this before on another thread.http://human-memory.net/
That isn't true the brain keeps developing until the age of 25 and over 50 000 neurons are produced a day. Most will form neural networks so they can function properly but a majority of them will die off especially in the case of mental illnesses (Alzheimerfor example)
Thanks for the link. Appreciate how it is layman's terms, so it was a quick read. What I found of importance and think it will play into future research on memory is the fact that our memories are not stored in a "filing cabinet" I remember years ago reading on memory and it was taught that we needed to know how to compartmentalize our memories in order to successfully and easily retrieve them. Of course, to do this was paying attention to attributes of certain events or information including the "sights, sounds, words, emotions". Now research is saying one memory or one piece of information is actually stored in different parts of our brain according to the "sights, sounds, words, emotions". This make more sense that we have a "distributed memory".
My statement is not incorrect.If you wish to discuss this further, feel free to begin a new thread in, maybe off topic, or elsewhere. I intend to "try" to not take a thread off topic, too much.
Exactly... If they ever find the brain's FAT file, imagine what could be done.Again, further discussion on this can be in a new thread.
Trying to play nice with other kids. I did get a U in deportment. :whistle:
I don't know much about the fetus portion of it, but a child would not recognize its mother or learn speech or any other functions if they did not retain memory. It is the recall memory that fades, but you always have it and it can be brought back out. I remember things from when I was and infant. I don't remember my birth or anything that God, but I do have early memories back as an infant that I confirmed with my parents.
I talked at a early age and had a higher vocabulary then most kids my age. I also began to read before 1st grade, but that could be from my parents teaching me and not so much my mental capacity. I can tell you this.... my long term memory is very acute but my short term memory is pretty bad. Someone once suggested I may have the beginnings of Alzheimers. I think that it is just the way my brain works. I do have a slight speech impediment also because my brain works faster then my mouth. LOL The doctor told my mom when I was a kid I had to learn to remember what I was thinking before I speak so that I could complete my sentences and words but my brain can not slow down. Still have a problem to this day with it, but I learned to work with it. I think that might be why my short term memory is so bad.
ellajanelle
Temporal Novice
I think the closest we can get to time travel is through our minds. The mind is a very powerful part of our body because it can make and break us at the same time. Technically, we travel through time everyday using our minds through memories. Although not physically present on that past moment, we never forget the feeling we had at that time and the emotion that moment brought about.
Your compassion of long-term memory vs short-term memory in conjunction with your "brain working faster then your mouth" reminds me of an article from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory? by Nelson Cowan. The idea of a working memory has to do with basically the present. For example, working a math problem in your head or while baking - recalling that you already added the flour, so you do not do it twice. It is a fascinating topic.I think, in regards to the topic at hand, Your mind as a time machine, we would, also, need a functioning "working memory" along with short and long term memories.
While I agree with you about the concept of "mental" time travel via our memories, I do not always recall my feelings and emotions experienced for "all" my memories. Granted some memories are vivid; however, some are merely moments in time of an event.
Thanks for answering. I could ask you another hundred questions but I won't bother you to that extent. I do have 17 "guinea pigs", commonly referred to as, grandchildren. I have noticed, as with you, early memory recall and early learning seem to coincide, somewhat. Not cause and effect. Instruction has a lot to do with it also. I have a 4 year old grandson that has a problem with his brain or maybe his vocabulary, keeping up with his mouth. He goes into a lengthy discourse and without stopping, if he doesn't have the word available, he says "blitilip" and just keeps on going. He never stops and goes, "uhmmm" or hesitates. He just throws that in and goes on.He knew colors and shapes early. When he was a bit over 2 he kept saying "creths-ent" at different times, outside, watching a TV show, etc. One day he was sitting on my lap at the computer watching the screen. I was playing an old game called "Pacific Storm" and he kept saying "creths-ent". We couldn't figure out what he was saying so I said, "Show me". He pointed to the icon in the lower corner that kept track of date and time which showed a moon shape when it was night. A crescent moon.Everyone should try to teach children as much as "the child" will tolerate, as early as possible. Neurogenesis slows after 2 years and may even stop with little to no additional neurons being created. It's still an undecided area of study. Around 4 an increase in apoptosis begins, cleaning up unused and unneeded neurons. Sorry, kinda off track ,but I believe, in our memories, will be the only way we travel to the past so, the earlier the better.
worldmachine
Temporal Novice
I have always stated on these forums that time travel will most likely be achieved through the mind. It is a question of learning how to tap in to the vast unused resources of our minds. The way this could be accomplished is by the use of meditation which takes us beyond normal perceptions in to another dimension.
Meditation would assist us in conjunction with our memories in time travelling in to the past in every real sense except physically. I believe we would sense, hear, see and feel the past with no need to actually be there in body. We would not be able to influence or change anything but that is for the best as the concept of changing past events has too many unanswered questions for us to comprehend.
Meditation would assist us in conjunction with our memories in time travelling in to the past in every real sense except physically. I believe we would sense, hear, see and feel the past with no need to actually be there in body. We would not be able to influence or change anything but that is for the best as the concept of changing past events has too many unanswered questions for us to comprehend.
That's known that our mind could be seen as a time travel machine but the main purpose of time travelling is that we can change things while we are in the past and obviously this is not possible if we use our mind of course. But it still is an interesting topic to talk about.
CallipygianGamine
Chrono Cadet
I agree with those who incline to think that the mind could be a time machine of sorts, especially as we are already somewhat capable of traveling, in a sense, via our memories. But if we could improve this ability so that there’s a greater level of accuracy, and expand it beyond traversing our memories, I think it would still make us time tourists rather than travelers. Which may be for the best. Changing or influencing the past is likely to have more drawbacks than benefits, and we could still gain plenty of insight via observation rather than interaction.
I was thinking about that. What if we could make machine that looks like the one in "Inception" but it would affect our memories, not dreams.Think about it. When you want to travel to the past, You put yourself comfortable in chair and plug in to this machine witch make your memories more visible or even physicaly accessible. You could just walk around the whole area you remember or even further. But you couldn't change the past. Only (like you said) passing by as a tourist.
You bring up a valid point about the goal of time travel is to change past events. Yet, I am inclined to agree with some of the above posters that changing past events is perhaps not the wisest course of action. Nor would it be my goal. Although, there already seems to be a discussion thread on this subject Would it be right to go back and change something, I just wanted to comment here, too. For me, I would rather be a time tourist, as mentioned by @ CallipygianGamine
Interesting analysis about the movie Inception. Now, this was one mind-blowing movie! It was like asking yourself what was real and what was in your mind - dream. Got to say having an object to tell the difference was quite interesting and not sure if it stopped spinning at the end?
Darby
Epochal Historian
How does it make "a lot of sense" with regards Special/General Relativity and the laws of physics in general? You might want to flesh that idea out just a bit. Like what is "it" in "it makes a lot of sense"? What is very informative? You reference some "guy" in the post. What guy? We might like what? How is a time capsule a time machine? And beyond being trivially true how is memory like a time capsule?
Darby
Epochal Historian
I suppose that we could continue to arbitrarily re-define the term "time travel" until eating a bowl of Wheaties is considered to be a form of time travel.Fortunately we do have specific criteria and some definitions. We can't say with certainty that time travel cannot be accomplished through shear willpower. The problem is this is a bit like pissing in your wetsuit. It feels good but you don't go around bragging to others about it. In the case of New Agey touchie-feelie Cargo Cult Science time travel there is no way whatsoever for an independent researcher to verify the mentalist's results or to even know what the results are. All they have is the mentalist's words describing their feelings. Just because twenty people claim to have astral projected to the past and another twenty claim to have read about it on the Internet doesn't make it a fact. Anecdotal offerings are still anecdotal no matter how many times the story is repeated on the Internet. Duke University took a huge black nose when they discovered that their Rhine Institute (for the study of ESP) was the world leader in Cargo Cult Science. Faked stats, faked experimental results, full on researcher bias - and everything was geared, not to prove or disprove the case for ESP, but to accept into the program only students who were ESP Believers and to only accept evidence for the case and to reject all evidence to the contrary. They'd made their minds up long before the Institute opened. When the evidence turned against them they re-defined their criteria to make the data fit the situation. There was no chance at all that the Rhine Institute was going to discover that ESP did not exist.
Time travel is a physical property of spacetime. Time travel to the future, which is not only possible but is accomplished on a regular basis, is absolutely measurable. An independent researcher can duplicate an experiment involving Special Relativistic time travel and verify the results. This is done daily for example with the GPS satellite system and in particle accelerators. Time travel to the past involves taking a path through spacetime whereby one can first witness the effect of an event and then go to and view the cause of the event, i.e. view the world such that effect can precede the cause. If this sort of time travel is possible (and it is doubtful at this time) it can be duplicated by an independent source and verified.
That's your criteria. Memory, dreams, astral projection, etc. are not time travel. Two exist as ordinary states of mind and the third...well...show me the physical evidence and design an experiment that can duplicate the effect and be verified by any competent independent researcher.