WoK4: Memory The infinite storage of things pocketed in your brain

Journal entries/Progress:

3/6/17:

New group, new project format. I’m excited but not sure how to do this right.

3/10/17:

The State of Things

What have you learned so far?

After reading the elective readings and the book, I’ve learned that memory is essentially the basis for the concept of knowledge. Although the book only described the aspects of memory but omit a lot of potential connection between memory and knowledge, I think that memory helps us think and create new knowledge as well as maintain the state of consciously knowing that knowledge. Too complicated? Let me elaborate! Whenever you type or read or even thinking, your memory activates the concept in your long term memory and put it to work. This allows you to understand and make connections, learn and create original ideas that are potential new knowledge. And without memory, everyone would be like a forgetful baby and our journey in finding knowledge, mapping the big picture of the capital T truth would be pointless. We can’t start knowing unless we have stored what we have known from other ways of knowing first and memory serves as the basis for all knowledge after faith.

Assess your badge project (paragraph) as it is standing now

I feel like my badge project is going well but there are definitely some space to add more to it. I didn’t realize what I have learned about this way of knowing until I had written it out. And instead of resorting to explaining memory as a psychological function, I tried to lean it back more to how it connects to knowledge and serves an the basis of knowledge. In fact, I think some of my ideas form this journal can also be applied to the paragraph (WoK writing).

Extension Proposal:

Note: This elaborates further to the aspects of memory and provide a reasonable explanation, possibly a counter argument to the opinions of the elective readings and the book's opinion about Google and other online search engines. It gave me new ideas about memory as a way of knowing and helped me write my ToK paragraph a lot, definitely a must read and recommended to be added in the elective readings to replace the long "Memory and Forgetting" RadioLab talk.

Progress:

First Draft:

No matter how great the effect of the easy accessibility of information, memory will always be important when it comes to forming new knowledge from knowledge previously stored. Memory is a mental storage consisting of all the knowledge that we have acquired over the course of our lives. But since the invention of online search engines, information or rather knowledge, have become much more easily accessible and thus diminishes the importance of memory as a basis for knowledge. Therefore, one might argue that search engines like “Google” or “Bing” can replace our factual memory, the subdivision that stores explicit information about objects, concepts and semantic meanings of words. But unknown to the conscious mind of many people, our memory is constantly at work, we process the stimulus, the image of traffic signs, the writings of others and understand what it meant because our memory knew the meaning of those words, the meaning of that sign. Even if you may encounter a traffic sign with a symbol you have never seen before and you google it, you still need your memory to know the meaning of the words on the webpage that explains what that sign meant. Moreover, you would need your practical memory to recall how to open your phone, open the browser and then type the words with your two thumbs that you want to search. This example signifies the importance of memory as a way of knowing, to transform the shared knowledge and put it in one’s personal knowledge. One must have the memory of the meaning of words from a language to understand a document written in that language and incorporates it in their personal knowledge. With this in mind, the convenient and easy accessibility of information does not lessen the significance of memory as a basis of knowledge, a way of knowing.

Second Draft (separated into sections for clearance and convenience):

Second Draft: Memory will always be important when it comes to forming new knowledge from knowledge previously stored.

Since the invention of online search engines, a virtually infinite source of information or rather knowledge, have become much more easily accessible and thus diminishes the importance of memory as a basis for knowledge. Therefore, you might argue that search engines like “Google” or “Bing” can replace our factual memory, the subdivision that stores explicit information about objects, concepts and semantic meanings of words. But unknown to the conscious mind of many people, our memory is constantly at work, we can process stimulus from the surrounding world as your memory activates the concept in your long term memory and put it to work. It allows us to understand, know the world, make connections, learn and create original ideas. You can argue that if we things you haven’t seen before, you can just google it. And your understanding of that new concept doesn’t have anything to do with memory. However consider this, your memory would need to utilize your practical memory to recall how to open your phone, open the browser and then type the words that you want to search with your two thumbs.

Without memory, everyone would be like a forgetful baby and our journey in finding knowledge, mapping the big picture of the capital T truth would be pointless. We cannot know what we know unless we have the memory of knowing it or how to use other ways of knowing: you cannot know for sure if you don’t remember putting faith into that knowledge nor can you use language to gain knowledge if you don’t have the memory of that grammar and vocabulary in that language.

Third draft (almost finalized work):

Since the invention of online search engines, a virtually infinite source of information or rather knowledge, have become much more easily accessible and thus diminishes the importance of memory as a basis for knowledge. Google or Bing may replace your factual memory, a subdivision of memory about explicit information about objects, concepts and semantic meanings. Nowadays, if we things you haven’t seen before, you can just google it. And it’s common to say that your understanding of that new concept doesn’t have anything to do with memory. But unknown to the conscious mind of many people, our memory is constantly at work, we can process stimulus from the surrounding world as your memory activates the concept in your long term memory and put it to work. It allows us to understand, know the world, make connections, learn and create original ideas. And the same applies for whenever you google something, you need memory to remember how to open your phone, touch the icon of web browser and type with your fingers. We cannot know what we know unless we have the memory of knowing it or how to use other ways of knowing: you cannot know for sure if you don’t remember putting faith into that knowledge nor can you use language to gain knowledge if you don’t have the memory of that grammar and vocabulary in that language.

Final Draft:

Since the invention of online search engines, a virtually infinite source of information or rather knowledge, have become much more easily accessible and thus diminishes the importance of memory as a basis for knowledge. Google or Bing may replace your factual memory, a subdivision of memory about explicit information about objects, concepts and semantic meanings. Nowadays, if we things you haven’t seen before, you can just google it. And it’s common to say that your understanding of that new concept doesn’t have anything to do with memory. But unknown to the conscious mind of many people, our memory is constantly at work, we can process stimulus from the surrounding world as your memory activates the concept in your long term memory and put it to work. It allows us to understand, know the world, make connections, learn and create original ideas. And the same applies for whenever you google something, you need memory to remember how to open your phone, touch the icon of web browser and type with your fingers. Without memory, everyone would be like a forgetful baby and our journey in finding knowledge, mapping the big picture of the capital T truth would be pointless. We cannot know what we know unless we have the memory of knowing it or memory of how to use other ways of knowing.

Vivid memories

Elective Reading Journals:

"Adding Memory": Because I take psychology, I know a bit about Loftus and her research about memory. I don't agree with the people who says that her work is suggesting some kind of evil mind manipulator but I think it's more of a warning that we need to hone our memories and be insusceptible to suggestibility, we should learn techniques to protect memories that may make us do harm and expose ourselves, from Inception almost. The story of the artist is profoundly emotional and shows that our memories is strong, and it lets us know what happened in our lives that fuel the energy for us to know more, to create more knowledge.

"Is Google making us stupid?": This is an article strongly support by evidence and reasoning and I absolutely agree to it. Very useful reading for this way of knowing but it misses the point of how important memory is as a way of knowing.

"Is the Internet killing our brains?": Useful reading if you want to know more about memory as a topic in psychology or just want to add more to your common sense about memory. I suggest that students only focus on the section of "Is Google destroying my memory?" because this is the only place in the article that has anything to do with memory as a way of knowing or knowledge stored in memory.

Credits:

Created with images by FlanellKamerasFilm - "camera russian analog"

Made with Adobe Slate

Make your words and images move.

Get Slate

Report Abuse

If you feel that this video content violates the Adobe Terms of Use, you may report this content by filling out this quick form.

To report a Copyright Violation, please follow Section 17 in the Terms of Use.