Thread: photographic memory, would you want it?

So, suppose that photographic memory i real. Would you want it? This means that you would forever remember anything that you see good and bad.

Personaly, I would want. I think that being able to remember anything in a book at first glance would outweigh the bad stuf that you saw.

photographic memory IS real. Autistic people think in pictures and images. Think Temple Grandin. It's predominately right-brain thinking, and has it's advantages.

And yes I do want it, i'm actually working on developing that side now .When I socialize with people, instead of thinking of words, I think of pictures, images, and visualization instead to go with it. This is also how to establish a link between conscious and subconscious mind.

photographic memory IS real. Autistic people think in pictures and images. Think Temple Grandin. It's predominately right-brain thinking, and has it's advantages.

Nobody's ever been able to demonstrate photographic memory; that is, being able to recall details of a scene in photographic detail for a long time. It's unlikely to even be possible as the human eye doesn't have that kind of resolution, even if the brain did.

Autistic people think in all kinds of ways.

The left brain / right brain dichotomy isn't true.

Originally Posted by Xei

Nobody's ever been able to demonstrate photographic memory; that is, being able to recall details of a scene in photographic detail for a long time.

Does this not count?

For some of the things I've seen? Hell no.

I have a photographic memory, and contrary to popular belief this does not mean you remember ever single thing that you see.

Originally Posted by Majestic

photographic memory IS real. Autistic people think in pictures and images. Think Temple Grandin. It's predominately right-brain thinking, and has it's advantages.

And yes I do want it, i'm actually working on developing that side now .When I socialize with people, instead of thinking of words, I think of pictures, images, and visualization instead to go with it. This is also how to establish a link between conscious and subconscious mind.

I'm autistic, but am horrible at remembering scenes, unless they are in dreams

Originally Posted by sheogorath

So, suppose that photographic memory i real. Would you want it? This means that you would forever remember anything that you see good and bad.

Personaly, I would want. I think that being able to remember anything in a book at first glance would outweigh the bad stuf that you saw.

I'm autistic myself, I have a form of picture memory and i am kind of "rain-man" in many ways (Things will solve themselves for me in my minds eye without any help.) and its real trust me. It kinda sucks because i have tons of artistic ability but suck at hand drawing

To elaborate on the "rain-man" comment as its related to memory. I have an ability for knowing without knowing and the best way to explain it is that someone can ask me something i have never learned but i will be able to tell them the answer because at some point in my life i have overheard a conversation or seen TV program or scanned a book without realizing and had picked this information up.

I also have mild synthestesia.

I'm such a bundle of fun.

Originally Posted by IndigoGhost

I'm autistic myself, I have a form of picture memory and i am kind of "rain-man" in many ways (Things will solve themselves for me in my minds eye without any help.) and its real trust me. It kinda sucks because i have tons of artistic ability but suck at hand drawing

To elaborate on the "rain-man" comment as its related to memory. I have an ability for knowing without knowing and the best way to explain it is that someone can ask me something i have never learned but i will be able to tell them the answer because at some point in my life i have overheard a conversation or seen TV program or scanned a book without realizing and had picked this information up.

I also have mild synthestesia.

I'm such a bundle of fun.

You are very lucky. Left brainers like me are trying to get where your at. Hopefully I'm getting there since i create music.

Originally Posted by Majestic

You are very lucky. Left brainers like me are trying to get where your at. Hopefully I'm getting there since i create music.

Its social death, so its not really all its cracked up to be

Originally Posted by IndigoGhost

Its social death, so its not really all its cracked up to be

I doubt it. You have tremendous advantages and benefits that you might not even know you have.

Your connected to your subconscious more than you know, that's why your able to easily pick up information that your subconscious has scanned already. Us left-brainers have to meditate or "Search" the subconscious deeply for it to come up. Say someone told me something on the phone a couple of days ago, and I'm trying to figure out what it was, it might take me a while to remember it, or i might remember it later on in the day, while for you might automatically remember it on the spot fast, and easy.

I just find it hard to believe socializing is hard for you. Do you do any art or something that uses creativity? I bet your good at that.

Is recalling dreams is easy for you?

Originally Posted by Majestic

while for you might automatically remember it on the spot fast, and easy.

Do you do any art or something that uses creativity? I bet your good at that.

Is recalling dreams is easy for you?

Yes
Yes
Yes.


Awesome!

Originally Posted by IndigoGhost

I have an ability for knowing without knowing and the best way to explain it is that someone can ask me something i have never learned but i will be able to tell them the answer because at some point in my life i have overheard a conversation or seen TV program or scanned a book without realizing and had picked this information up.

I am just like that too, that's why my little cousin told me I have a general knowledge of everything lol

Originally Posted by OldManRiver

I am just like that too, that's why my little cousin told me I have a general knowledge of everything lol

Cool is it not?

Originally Posted by Majestic

I doubt it. You have tremendous advantages and benefits that you might not even know you have.

Your connected to your subconscious more than you know, that's why your able to easily pick up information that your subconscious has scanned already. Us left-brainers have to meditate or "Search" the subconscious deeply for it to come up. Say someone told me something on the phone a couple of days ago, and I'm trying to figure out what it was, it might take me a while to remember it, or i might remember it later on in the day, while for you might automatically remember it on the spot fast, and easy.

I just find it hard to believe socializing is hard for you. Do you do any art or something that uses creativity? I bet your good at that.

Is recalling dreams is easy for you?

The form of autism i have is aspergers syndrome, read up about it and you will realise why its social death and not all its cracked up to be. I have also had a few people tell me i may also have savant syndrome.

It has its benefits and has its weaknesses, i will say though that its nice to have something that almost makes you destined to succeed and will drive you forward to success without even trying.

The funny thing is i have a family genetic thing where i have bad dream recall, no idea what its called though. I can train it but its pretty hard for me.

I am a martial artist, i am not sure if that counts or not but i am good at what i do, I am artistic but i have a horrible problem with drawing because of dyslexia making the fine motor control of my hands pretty bad, i think its a shame really.

Also just in case you did not know, meditation is a left brained act so if your training the right side of the brain with it then its kinda counterintuitive, i would not give it up though

[QUOTE=IndigoGhost;1360329]Cool is it not?

It has its benefits and has its weaknesses, i will say though that its nice to have something that almost makes you destined to succeed and will drive you forward to success without even trying.

yes this is what I was talking about. Great advantage


Also just in case you did not know, meditation is a left brained act so if your training the right side of the brain with it then its kinda counterintuitive, i would not give it up though

I figured meditation is a right brain acted, because it clears conscious/logical/left brain thoughts, while the right-brain has a chance to dominate. It increases intuition, creativity, decreases stress, anxiety, etc. etc.

Originally Posted by Majestic

I figured meditation is a right brain acted, because it clears conscious/logical/left brain thoughts, while the right-brain has a chance to dominate. It increases intuition, creativity, decreases stress, anxiety, etc. etc.

Meditation is concentration of a single thought, so its more of a logical thing rather then creative. I guess it depends on the type of meditation you do.

Originally Posted by Spenner

I know exactly what you mean by the social killing side-effects of aspergers, I have it myself. It's enhanced so many aspects of my mind and connection to my subconscious, which in turn has enhanced my artistic side, and I find myself extremely emotional on a good (or bad) day of it. Pretty much why social interaction has sucked is because I'm introverted without any form of extroversion. I can think up the most wonderful things to say or do, but I cannot say or do them. If I try, they will be shaky and cluttered and lacking in many ways.

Drawing, however, I'm getting better at. When I just relax myself and draw the "shapes" of my emotions and surroundings I feel as though a needle is just draining all the stress out of me. I also have synethstesia, and with being emotional I find everything in the world to be vivid in a non-literal way. That is, say, a hammer is not just a hammer to me-- it's a gigantic scene of wooden cubes and little children passing balls back and forth in a misty field of wheat. Everything is like that to me, and I can't even come close to representing the figments of my subconscious on paper or on the computer.

So, photographic memory for me would be like physically seeing all of the beautiful creations of my autistic/synethstetic mind... and that would be just amazing for me.

Getting a little off track here, but I'm also bipolar which has only added to the vastness of my emotions, nevertheless I've trained myself out of so many habits and it is possible to diminish a great deal of these syndromes. They're great to have when you want them, but when you don't, and they're still there, it can be brutal.

The worst kind of thing that personally happens to me in conversations with normal people is that they ask me about celebrities and modern music as most people my age are obsessed with them and it should come natural but i have no idea, i want to start talking about quantum physics or something very technical in small talk and have done a few time's and this is where the problem starts because they don't understand anything about it and then you alienate yourself because you get the weird feeling your higher up or "smarter" then those around you. I hate this part because its hard to make friends when you think everyone are stupid sheep in a cage without walls. ;/

Originally Posted by IndigoGhost

Cool is it not?

The form of autism i have is aspergers syndrome, read up about it and you will realise why its social death and not all its cracked up to be. I have also had a few people tell me i may also have savant syndrome.

It has its benefits and has its weaknesses, i will say though that its nice to have something that almost makes you destined to succeed and will drive you forward to success without even trying.

The funny thing is i have a family genetic thing where i have bad dream recall, no idea what its called though. I can train it but its pretty hard for me.

I am a martial artist, i am not sure if that counts or not but i am good at what i do, I am artistic but i have a horrible problem with drawing because of dyslexia making the fine motor control of my hands pretty bad, i think its a shame really.

Also just in case you did not know, meditation is a left brained act so if your training the right side of the brain with it then its kinda counterintuitive, i would not give it up though

I know exactly what you mean by the social killing side-effects of aspergers, I have it myself. It's enhanced so many aspects of my mind and connection to my subconscious, which in turn has enhanced my artistic side, and I find myself extremely emotional on a good (or bad) day of it. Pretty much why social interaction has sucked is because I'm introverted without any form of extroversion. I can think up the most wonderful things to say or do, but I cannot say or do them. If I try, they will be shaky and cluttered and lacking in many ways.

Drawing, however, I'm getting better at. When I just relax myself and draw the "shapes" of my emotions and surroundings I feel as though a needle is just draining all the stress out of me. I also have synethstesia, and with being emotional I find everything in the world to be vivid in a non-literal way. That is, say, a hammer is not just a hammer to me-- it's a gigantic scene of wooden cubes and little children passing balls back and forth in a misty field of wheat. Everything is like that to me, and I can't even come close to representing the figments of my subconscious on paper or on the computer.

So, photographic memory for me would be like physically seeing all of the beautiful creations of my autistic/synethstetic mind... and that would be just amazing for me.

Getting a little off track here, but I'm also bipolar which has only added to the vastness of my emotions, nevertheless I've trained myself out of so many habits and it is possible to diminish a great deal of these syndromes. They're great to have when you want them, but when you don't, and they're still there, it can be brutal.

wow, amazing responses. For one thing, i have always been fascinated with autism. My mother says that she used to think I was autistic, although I don't really know that and she is a bit strange anyway, making complicated solutions or explanations when there is a really simple answer...

I didn't have any friends until i was in 1st grade really, and even at that, it was more like someone who followed me around and talked to me wile I thought of other stuff. I only made "real friends" in late elementary school. I also didn't learn to talk properly until Kindergarden after a few years of speech therapy. but anyway, enough of my life story. Personally, I think I am just really introverted. Prehaps though, I have this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-functioning_autism
of which I fit the symptoms of can't hold eye contact, engage in play (yeah, causes a lot of problems in school when everyone wants to play sports and I no will or want at all to although I can enjoy video games so that may cancel that out), and pick up on social cues which is the worst because i can NOT tell how people feel, especially about me, without them telling me directly. And there is the problem of "showing affection" which I even when I would LIKE to do, I have no idea what to do.

anyway, that is most likely just poor social skills and introversionism. I just thought i would throw that out there.

But back to the photographic memory thing, The responses saying that you don't remember everything are interesting, and make it even more appealing to me. One question though. Is math hard for those of you with photographic memory? It would seem that it would be if you thought mostly in pictures.

How would a photographic memory work in dreams? Would you remember your dreams visually almost perfectly, because of that kind of memory or will the brain try to sweep your memory clean from dreams regardless of your special memory?

Originally Posted by IndigoGhost

Cool is it not?

It's amazing

Originally Posted by sheogorath

But back to the photographic memory thing, The responses saying that you don't remember everything are interesting, and make it even more appealing to me. One question though. Is math hard for those of you with photographic memory? It would seem that it would be if you thought mostly in pictures.

No, math comes pretty easy for me.

I find math pretty easy.