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Why memory and imagination are the same

Tom Goodwin

It's almost impossible for most people to imagine a color that doesn't exist, or a sound you've never heard or a new smell.


The weird thing about memory and imagination is they are one and the same.


Our memory isn't what happened, it's a story we tell ourselves that makes sense based on flawed retrieval of experiences. It's something more likely to be plausible than accurate, it's simply an imaginative reconstruction


Similarly, our imagination isn't really NEW thinking about something, it's at best a projection of memories into the future, it's new combination of previous experiences.


It's quite odd really. Our memories, our future thoughts and even our realities are relatively removed from "truth" , "experience" or "reality", they are generally lazily constructed logical narratives through what we want to see.


We’re trapped in a narrative. We are generally pattern finders trying to make sense of complex, often random data points in ways that make us feel better. We limit what we can see in order to feel better about our level of understanding. One of the few things we hate more than uncertainty is the idea the world is unknown or ambigious or illogical.


This isn't going to be the most useful post I've done here, I guess I could leave by saying " try to challenge your viewpoints" or work out your imagination like a muscle in a gym, or "there is no reality nor abject truth"


I could say to find our more, read my book, but I think I left this bit out.


It's not my place to say that.


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