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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Max More<br><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, June 26, 2011 11:49 AM<br><b>To:</b> ExI chat list<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] Superior Autobiographical Memory<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span> My autobiographical memory seems to be particulary weak. I've learned to compensate by keeping written notes of events, because I know that I'm likely to forget them otherwise -- unless they are extremely vivid. For instance, Spike and others were recently talking about some eminent people who attended an Extro conference, yet I have NO memory of that<span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span> I consider this a major disability and it makes me sad… Max<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Max, before you go too far with that thought, do consider that these detailed memories are not universal, but only apply to certain specific event in one’s life in which there was a particularly profound emotional or intellectual impact. For instance, consider your wedding day and the level of detail you remember of that day. OK, what were you doing exactly four weeks later? You don’t know, ja? Neither do I. Guys, ask your wives the same thought experiment. Or if you are not married, think of the level of detail you remember about the morning of 28 January 1986. For you younger guys, 11 September 2001. What happened on 11 October 2001? You don’t know? Neither do I.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>There are certain events in my own life that completely blew my mind, like a ten year old baseball fan being invited to sit in the Yankee’s dugout during the world series. I don’t care a damn about Hollyweird stars, political leaders or professional athletes: my heroes are all philosophers, inventors, mathematicians, physicists, scientists, thinkers and writers. There were so many of them there all at the same time, people whose books and writings I had read but never thought in my wildest imagination I would ever get to meet.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>You, being one of those people, get to hang out with those types often. University campus environment, philosophy department, interesting cool people likely swing by every other day, come knocking on your office door. How cool is that? {8^D So for you, the Extrocons wouldn’t be so different from the usual four weeks after your wedding day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>At the Extrocons, I get to meet those whose comments I read every day, largely including the dozen or so regulars here whose commentary has so enriched my life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Several of the bright stars seemed to have dropped by the ExtroCons for a short while, then gone on. I am surprised you don’t recall talking to Stephen Wolfram. That was a mind-blower for me. At that time I was just getting into Mathematica, and was more impressed with it all the time. Just before you and he spoke, someone had commented to him about Mathematica’s clumsy user interface, which was understandably an annoying comment (true, but annoying just the same.) Then you and he spoke for several minutes in which you were trying to explain transhumanism. I would describe that exchange as “strained,” for his disposition was “impatient.” I wanted to tell him afterwards I thought Mathematica was wicked cool, but he split the scene before I had a chance. {8-[ Dayum.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Ed Regis was there, nice guy, wouldn’t stand out in a crowd, smart. Sasha Chislenko, Damien, Amara Graps, Greg Burch, Anders, Eliezer, the rest of the usual suspects known for posting smart interesting stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>At one of the extrocons, I was carrying a collection of studies compiled by a Lockheed team about solar sails. K. Eric Drexler saw me with it, came up and started a conversation. THE K. Eric, came up and started talking to microscopic me(!) as if I am HIS equal! All these smart guys treating me as if I was one of them, whoooooo! I was so in awe of myself! In that crowd I kept worrying that the IQ police would spot me (YOU! OUT!) Oddly enough, I never got that feeling at any of the MENSA meetings I attended. I don’t even remember them that well. They had none of the wicked coolness or sheer awesomeness of the ExtroCons. Of course I would remember every detail of those occasions, like a kid in the Yankees dugout. Then that all-day blowout party we had at my house right after Extro5, oh my. That was my life’s high tide, pal. I couldn’t tell you one thing about what happened four weeks later, or anything else that happened around that time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Max if your life is so interesting that the extrocons do not etch indelible images in your mind’s retinas, you are indeed a man to be envied. {8^D<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>See that, you guys are the Yankees. So, do hit homers by posting smart interesting stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>