On the nature of autobiographical memory

I suppose I am just happy that these things are being talked about more. I can't visualize anything, feel a memory, re-experience the past, or even remember much at all about my own life. A day after arriving home from a trip I can't even be sure I went anywhere unless I check my calendar and my inbox for details about flights and hotels. It is very distancing and alienating, and friends often seem to think you are just too caught up in your own world to remember they exist, when really it's just the opposite and you aren't even sure that you exist.

Much like the 'discovery' of aphantasia has dramatically changed the narrative of subjective experience, I hope that further inquiry into SDAM/HDAM will help others understand, in time, that some of us exist entirely outside of time and place but are doing our best. And for those who experience the world this way as well, the message should be that happiness is achievable, but certainly looks and feels differently for some, and even moreso for those who live their lives at the edges of the bell curve.

Holy cow, I can't remember much about my life, but thanks to digital photography, I do have a section of it I can recall the important events from. I never considered that having a perfect memory could be a curse.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

There’s a short story by Ted Chiang called “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling” that addresses this idea. It bounces between a story written by a future journalist about always-on retina cameras, and historical fiction about the introduction of writing to an oral-only culture.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140222103103/http://subterrane...

I wish my memory was better... but after reading that, I'm sure glad it's not that good. Really fascinating read, went quite well with my morning cup of coffee. :)