The Useless Burden of Unwanted Knowledge

[wolram]

Watching one of these boring TV quiz shows i found i new answers to questions i have no interest in, it had me thinking how much stuff i know i do not want to know and how much of my memory capacity is used up with useless information.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

It would be nice if we could plug into a computer and look at our mind via a file manager, right?

Just don't hit the reset to factory settings button!

 

[zoobyshoe]

As I get older I have discovered that I automatically screen new information for some sense of how long it might be good for. The older a person gets the more you realize how much effort you wasted in your life trying to remember things that ended up being superseded by more recent information.

For example, I find I have an instinctual resistance to remembering the operating hours of any business because there's a really good chance that business will have closed in five years, or, at least, will have changed those hours. Today it makes even less sense to remember stuff like that because you can google just about anything.

 

[wolram]

As I get older I have discovered that I automatically screen new information for some sense of how long it might be good for. The older a person gets the more you realize how much effort you wasted in your life trying to remember things that ended up being superseded by more recent information.

For example, I find I have an instinctual resistance to remembering the operating hours of any business because there's a really good chance that business will have closed in five years, or, at least, will have changed those hours. Today it makes even less sense to remember stuff like that because you can google just about anything.

How do you screen out stuff you do not even know you are learning?

 

[Mark44]

I still remember my family's phone number when we lived in Yuma, AZ, 1954 to 1958 - SU 3-4594. I doubt that remembering this uses up space that could be held for more timely information. The brain is able to retain a lot of stuff -- some useful, some not.

 

[zoobyshoe]

How do you screen out stuff you do not even know you are learning?

With my, 'I-don't-even-know-I-am-screening' screen. This is a brain function that's been located on the 'I-can't believe-it's-not-butter' gyrus of the inferior medial 'I-can't-believe-I-just-said-that' area.

 

[Psinter]

Just don't hit the reset to factory settings button!

Sometimes when you catch a virus that's the only way.

I still remember my family's phone number when we lived in Yuma, AZ, 1954 to 1958 - SU 3-4594. I doubt that remembering this uses up space that could be held for more timely information. The brain is able to retain a lot of stuff -- some useful, some not.

I stopped memorizing phone numbers a long time ago. Now when somethings happen to the phone and I don't have a backup, I lose contacts for real.

 

[wolram]

Sometimes when you catch a virus that's the only way.

I stopped memorizing phone numbers a long time ago. Now when somethings happen to the phone and I don't have a backup, I lose contacts for real.

This is a way technology is getting inseparable from day to day living, i need my phone to remember numbers so i don't have to, it is the old information i want to delete
like i do not want to remember how to shim a gearbox, that part of my life is long gone.

 

[Mark44]

I stopped memorizing phone numbers a long time ago. Now when somethings happen to the phone and I don't have a backup, I lose contacts for real.

There are no numbers stored on my cell phone. As far as cell phones are concerned, I am a Luddite. I think I got my cell phone on 2002 - it's a Nokia, with a little bitty screen (monochrome) and an antenna that pulls out. No one knows the number, including me. I use it almost exclusively to call other people, and that only occasionally. I charge it up about twice a year.

 

[Psinter]

There are no numbers stored on my cell phone. As far as cell phones are concerned, I am a Luddite. I think I got my cell phone on 2002 - it's a Nokia, with a little bitty screen (monochrome) and an antenna that pulls out. No one knows the number, including me. I use it almost exclusively to call other people, and that only occasionally. I charge it up about twice a year.

Old Nokias are legend (in the sense that they are awesome ). I can't believe you have one. Take good care of it.

like i do not want to remember how to shim a gearbox, that part of my life is long gone.

I don't know what "shim a gearbox" means, but it sounds useful . Things I want to forget are things I think I did that were stupid and also hope everyone else forgets. Like: I really hope no one else remembers it.

Source

 

[wolram]

I don't know what "shim a gearbox" means, but it sounds useful . Things I want to forget are things I think I did that were stupid and also hope everyone else forgets. Like: I really hope no one else remembers it.

Shimming gearboxes is a forgotten craft these days a reconditioned unit is cheaper to buy. now what on Earth could you have done that was stupid that you want to forget

 

[Psinter]

Shimming gearboxes is a forgotten craft these days a reconditioned unit is cheaper to buy.

Oh.

now what on Earth could you have done that was stupid that you want to forget

Not done, said, in front of many people, in middle school. Who knows...

And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years...

Good. I like it like that. Let it stay like that.

...Rumor grew of a shadow in the East – whispers of a nameless fear.

I said shut up! I'll do what you want, just shut up...

 

[epenguin]

i need my phone to remember numbers so i don't have to,

The trouble with that is when on the phone and somebody asks me my phone number I have to tell them I have no way to know because I'm on the phone to someone.