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Software Backs Up Human Memory
Posted by
timothy
on Fri Aug 01, 2008 12:53 AM
from the where'd-I-put-my-pda dept.
from the where'd-I-put-my-pda dept.
CWmike writes "Ever try to remember who you bumped into at the store a few days back? Well, you're not alone. And IBM researchers are working on software that just may help you better recollect all the forgotten pieces of your life. This week, the company unveiled Pensieve, software that stores images, sounds, and text on everyday mobile devices, then allows the user extract them later on, to help them recall names, faces, conversations and events. IBM's project is akin to one that Gordon Bell and other scientists at Microsoft Research have been working on for the past nine years."
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Pensieve? (Score:5, Interesting)
Did that have a meaning before harry potter, or did they have to license that?
I mean, great name and visual from the books/movies, but a quick search only showed harry potter realted results, and dictionary.com didnt know it either.
just curious.
Re:Pensieve? (Score:5, Informative)
Far be it from the summary to include a useful link: http://www.haifa.ibm.com/projects/imt/pensieve/
Parent
Re:Pensieve? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Pensieve? (Score:5, Informative)
The adjective "pensive" has the meaning you stated.
"Pensieve," I believe, is a portmanteau of "pensive" and "sieve" or filter.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Pensieve? (Score:5, Funny)
and a Pen Sieve is a device for sorting your big pens from your little pens.
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Re:Pensieve? (Score:4, Insightful)
err ... that would be Microsoft.
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BAD IDEA! (Score:5, Insightful)
good advice (Score:5, Funny)
good advice!
ill put that in my palm pilot notes right now.
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Hah (Score:5, Funny)
If only that were the case at the bar. This happens far, far too often. I'd love some kind of memory aid.
[talking to hot woman]
Me: "Hey. So, you're a biology nut and read Neal Stephanson in your spare time? Hey, what's your name?"
Her: "Alice, and you are?"
Me: "Dan. So, can you hold on a minute? I've got to run to the bathroom."
[thinking] ...
"Must remember name is Alice"
"Must remember name is Alice"
"Must remember name is Alice"
"Must remember name is Alice"
"Must remember name is Alice"
[comes back]
Me: "So, Emily how are you doing?"
Her: "Uhm, I'm Alice."
*crap*
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Order of operations (Score:5, Funny)
You want to take the crap before you come back from the bathroom.
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Re:Order of operations (Score:5, Funny)
So, all this time, my dating problems have been a race condition?
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Re:Order of operations (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Wow... I bet that XKCD will have a blag about that soon.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Me: "Hey. So, you're a biology nut and read Neal Stephanson in your spare time? Hey, what's your name?"
Her: "Alice, and you are?"
Me: "Greg. So, how long since you become a woman?"
Her: "Three months."
Me: "post op or pre-op?"
Seriously I mean no disrespect to women. Though I doubt any will actually read this.
Re:memory (Score:2)
Nah.
I can't remember all the junk anyway, so I'm already living your worst case scenario. I basically do a paper version of this already. I'd keep my eyes out for a smooth software version. I haven't eval'ed The Feature Software.
Re:BAD IDEA! (Score:5, Interesting)
It's true.
While some people claim this is evidence that computers are making us stupid (or stupid-er), the way the brain works, if it knows something is being held somewhere else, it doesn't bother to remember it. I've looked at my fiancee's phone number thousands of times since we started dating 7 years ago, and all I remember is that it has like an 8 in it. (Uh, maybe 2 8's? And theres a 6 in there somewhere?). It kind of pissed her off, but I said, "Hey, that's what cell phones are for!" Didn't fly so well though.
The brain actually can incorporate external objects into its sense of self. In this sense, a PDA, computer, or, (shudder) Wikipedia becomes a form of external memory. And you're precisely right - losing these things (as I did with a PDA once) does make a person feel precisely like an amnesiac.
It's also why I think that people in olden times had less trouble memorizing stuff like the Illiad than we do. (Another part was that it rhymed, and could be set to music, which also greatly help -- have you ever thought about how many thousands of song lyrics are stuck in your head?)
Anyhow, I don't think it necessarily makes us stupider, as long as we're able to think and reason on our feet. As long as own brains have cached the most important information, who cares if we have to reference the internet to figure out what year the Dawes Act was signed?
(I'm most amused by the name, as it's obvious someone at IBM is a Harry Potter fan.)
Parent
Numbers are easy... (Score:4, Funny)
Look at your slashdot ID. 157947 can be written as 1 - 57 - 9 - 47. Its all downhill from there.
47 is easy if you are a Star Trek or a Hitman fan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/47_(number) [wikipedia.org]
9+1 are 10. Which is how much you need to add (as you are going downhill, or backwards) to 47 to get the SECOND PAIR of numbers.
Or you can start at 15, the first 2 digits, divide it in half like they are integers and get the 7, add 2 and get 9, add the 2's you used so far to get 4, and either subtract that 2 you added to the 9 earlier to get the final 7 or just remember that 1337 starts with 1 and ends with 7.
Yeah... I know... I've been confusing people with my number mnemonics for years.
I've looked at my fiancee's phone number thousands of times since we started dating 7 years ago, and all I remember is that it has like an 8 in it.
Or, why don't you try spelling it? [phonespell.org]
Or use some other mnemonic [mindtools.com]
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Re:BAD IDEA! (Score:4, Interesting)
If you want clinical studies on this look up the work done by Prof. Steve Mann at the University of Toronto. He has been a "cyborg" for years now. One of the co inventors of the Wearable computer (Thad Starner was the original inventor, Steve worked with him and went a different direction with it) Steve has several system in place that will pull up info on people, bring up reminders, and gps tag memories.
Not too long ago he unplugged himself and discovered that he had created a HUGE reliance on the technology, causing a large number of problems.
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Why unplug? Charlie Stross saw this in Accelerando (Score:3, Insightful)
I have a huge reliance on my PDA, which has had a huge effect on handling my organizational issues. So should I go back to being as disorganized as I used to be, instead of being the guy who does the organization? I'm just as dependent on my PDA as Steve Mann was on his Wearcam. If you use a cellphone or an addess book or a paper organizer, well, you have the same problem. This isn't a new problem, it's not a high tech problem, I'm sure Himuralabima of Babylon would have found himself just as lost without h
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
More likely, it will be taken [slashdot.org] by your DHS to fight 'global terrorism'.
CC.
Uh (Score:4, Funny)
What were we JUST talking about?
Re: (Score:2)
And if the people you were just talking to were high too they won't have any idea either... (Not verbatim I don't think but, well, there's a reference that shows my age a little bit too well.)
Almost, but not entirely, unlike backup (Score:2)
What?! By this time they should've built a direct brain interface, a la Johnny Mnemonic. I'll definitely need one of those if I want to live to be 1000 >_<
Re: (Score:2)
Holy crap--so *that's* where I left my bicycle!
Seriously, think of the mischief one could do by hacking into someone's brain interface and implanting false memories.
Backup for Human Memory? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:legal pads (Score:2)
ever noticed that legal pads are such an awkward size, and that the business world runs on 8.5x11 memos? people faxing legal pad notes sludges our printer into using 11x17 paper.
Let's talk software.
RD: Body Swap (Score:2, Funny)
LISTER: (upon seeing a large needle that KRYTEN just removed the air from) Kryten, what's that for?
KRYTEN: It's a mental emetic.
LISTER: A what?
KRYTEN: A mind enema -- so we can flush out your brain.
LISTER: Nobody's flush'n out my brain.
KRYTEN: We'll transfer it back afterwards.
LISTER: You are not sticking that thing in my head.
Exactly what we don't need (Score:5, Interesting)
I feel like with the advent of Google, Wikipedia, searching my old Gmail messages... it's been easier than ever for me to not remember things. Remember how ancient people used to memorize huge poems and religious texts? Granted, a lot of this relied on mnemonics and repetitive passages, but I can't help but feel modern human memory is poor compared to the way it used to be.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
There is a hell of a lot more stuff to know. In ancient Africa there were people who recorded the oral traditions of their culture with songs. That was there job. People still memorize the Quran, front-to-back, in fact it is all that is taught in some schools. A few people had the job of memorizing considerable amounts of information, while others toiled in the fields.
We are a hell of a lot more educated than any generation before us. It's common for people to spend 16-20 years in school. You'd be middle
Re: (Score:2)
How odd is this? Earlier today (and I promise to not cheat and only include a little) my wife and I were discussing the same topic. Only it was about, "Err... Did you remember to write down my appointment so we can enter it into the computer when we get home?" (I've been doing a lot of *good* doctor's visits lately as in getting healthy again.)
She said she hadn't but it was written down. Good thing too because by the time it comes around we'll have forgotten if we didn't actually enter it in with in 48 hour
Re: (Score:2)
Oh I know that. Trust me... Oh wow... I absolutely KNOW that.
Let ME cite you an example.
Today is technically Friday where I live but this was Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday weather in Maine, USA. You can look it up.
She loves this old 1988 Honda Accord. Me too. We've actually hit a 36 MPG range with it but that was Kansas and a story for another time. My truck which is still here in Maine and "owned" by my ex-wife (though I'm pretty sure that loan is in my name) gets about 17 MPG on a good day. And so I am
No thanks (Score:5, Funny)
I'll stick to my system of polaroids and tattoos
Re:No thanks (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Software Backs Up Human Memory (Score:4, Funny)
CWmike [mailto] writes "Ever try to remember who you bumped into at the store a few days back? Well, you're not alone. And IBM researchers are working on software that just may help you better recollect all the forgotten pieces of your life [computerworld.com]. This week, the company unveiled Pensieve, software that stores images, sounds, and text on everyday mobile devices, then allows the user extract them later on, to help them recall names, faces, conversations and events. IBM's project is akin to one that Gordon Bell and other scientists at Microsoft Research have been working on for the past nine years [computerworld.com]."
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Just what we need (Score:3, Interesting)
software agents (Score:5, Interesting)
Wouldn't it just be easier to tell the truth.. (Score:2, Funny)
And call it "A cure for marijuana".
Re: (Score:2)
And call it "A cure for marijuana".
Yeah, as if you're going to even bother entering stuff into this thing once you're high.
"Note- must buy more chips"
The Only Problem... (Score:4, Insightful)
Ok, we can now backup our memory.
But how do we restore it ?
If can help remember ... (Score:3, Funny)
... can it also help forget, because I have seen two girls and a cup and things that have been seen can not be unseen (for now).
Sounds like something I did (Score:5, Funny)
I worked on a very similar project but now I can't remember what it's called.
RTFA (Score:2, Funny)
I just got something: It's "Read The Featured Article". I thought It was somthing else... Someone should really write these things out occasionally. My opinion of slashdotters everywhere has risen slightly. Consequently, opinions of me may lower... But I don't care what the world thinks of mw. FTW!
Talk about devoid of detail (Score:2)
And how much are they paying J.K. Rowling? (Score:4, Informative)
The "pensieve" is a stone bowl that the user can put their memories in for viewing later, and was used to reveal some important plot points.
Well, memory isn't really a problem (Score:2)
Recall is. All of us have vast, insane amounts of memory, but we can't always recall the things that are stored there. And then there are cases when you don't remember something and then it all comes to you in vivid, minute detail.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
hmmm. (Score:3, Insightful)
"according to you pensieve black box you were at the location of the crime at the time of the crime!"
"oh futz!"
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)