SocraticGadfly: Memory is a JPG not a TIF

April 25, 2012

Memory is a JPG not a TIF

That insight popped into my head after reading Jonah Lehrer's column about memory degradation. Lehrer notes that the act of "opening" a "stored" memory is what causes it to decay. And, of course, as fellow workers with digital photos know, a "lossy" photo in a format like a JPG decays whenever you handle it, while a "lossless" format like a TIF doesn't.

Another thought .... this probably has something to say about too much rumination being bad in the sense that eventually one isn't ruminating about the actual event.

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