Eric Manshun Choi (emc at madrox) wrote:
: I am in the process of writing a science fiction story in which one of
: the characters has the ability to literally remember EVERYTHING that he
: sees or reads. For example, if he was walking down the street, he would
: remember how many cracks there were in the sidewalk, the number of cars
: that passed him, the make and color of each car, the license plates on
: the cars, how many people were in each car and what they looked like, etc.
: How would such an ability affect his mind? Would he be able to cope, or
: would the overload of information drive him insane?
: Any input would be much appreciated. Thank you very much!
: --
: Eric M. Choi | Author of "From a Stone", in the
: University of Toronto | September issue of SCIENCE FICTION AGE
: Institute for Aerospace Studies | magazine. Now available at bookstores
:emc at sdr.utias.utoronto.ca | and newsstands.
You might want to read the book The Mind of a Mnemonist by Luria. It
describes a real person with a "total" memory. He also experienced
synesthesia - he remembered words as visual images of objects unrelated
(in our
usual way of thinking) to the words. Mostly this ability to remember
everything - and the inability to forget anything - was a handicap to him. It
made it difficult to sift out meaningful relationships between things - sort
of a forest and trees problem.
Martha J. Cichelli
Temple University
Psychology Dept.
