Re: Hey, get outta my head!

BB is right.

Certainty is not a feature of naturally occurring memories. Sure we sometimes claim certainty.

But actual certainty is a feature of false induced memories and of the narrative structures we superimpose on our more vague memories to create meaning.

Studies have been done on inducing false memories. ( The "Lost in a Shopping Mall" narrative is the one that finally passed the Ethics Committee for "traumatizing" unsuspecting students or their relatives. ) In some cases the recipient of an induced memory will tell the person demonstrating the ruse that they must be lying, because their recall is so clear.

Our brains are not recording devices. And actual trauma interferes even moreso with recall. The eyewitnesses to horrific accidents and crimes get even the most basic of information wrong all the time; as The Innocence Project is demonstrating at an ever increasing rate.

And then there's the famous "Invisible Gorilla experiment, where most folks cannot see the guy in the gorilla costume who spends a 1/3 of the footage clearly beating his chest in the center of the screen.

Human memory is a construct, and valid external info is only part of that construct.

Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. And for many of us, "I'm certain and I won't be swayed," are not words of wisdom.

And yeah, everyone knows that others have imperfect human memories. The exception is only claimed for the speaker.

Dante