Deja vu all over again
January 10-11, 2011
Imagine two glass spheres, one above another, connected by a thin tube. The upper one has a small opening at the very top; the lower one has a hole near the bottom. There is a flame heating the bottom of the lower sphere. A little liquid, representing an event, is poured in to the lower sphere, which represents short-term memory, and sits on the bottom of it, your conscious mind. As it heats it slowly evaporates and escapes into the top sphere, your long-term memory. And eventually it leaks outside the sphere into the rest of your subconscious. There is a theory that proposes that the phenomenon we know as deja vu occurs when, say, as a liquid is about to be poured in, a spark issues from the flame that causes it to evaporate immediately and go directly into your long-term memory, robbing it of its presence and immediacy, and making you feel like it happened a long while ago. I'm aware (thanks Anne) that the mind is not such a simple mechanism, but I am attracted enough by the basic principle of this theory that I think it could be on the right track. What do you think?
P.S. I'm also extremely proud of this analogy, which I invented on the spot.
Imagine two glass spheres, one above another, connected by a thin tube. The upper one has a small opening at the very top; the lower one has a hole near the bottom. There is a flame heating the bottom of the lower sphere. A little liquid, representing an event, is poured in to the lower sphere, which represents short-term memory, and sits on the bottom of it, your conscious mind. As it heats it slowly evaporates and escapes into the top sphere, your long-term memory. And eventually it leaks outside the sphere into the rest of your subconscious. There is a theory that proposes that the phenomenon we know as deja vu occurs when, say, as a liquid is about to be poured in, a spark issues from the flame that causes it to evaporate immediately and go directly into your long-term memory, robbing it of its presence and immediacy, and making you feel like it happened a long while ago. I'm aware (thanks Anne) that the mind is not such a simple mechanism, but I am attracted enough by the basic principle of this theory that I think it could be on the right track. What do you think?
P.S. I'm also extremely proud of this analogy, which I invented on the spot.