Memory implantation

[Tha_best]

Knowledge is a collection of memories that you have been taught to remember. Tests are merely a recollection of these memories. So there must be a more efficient way to implant these memories rather than the repetition of the education system. What do you guys think? 

[Externet]

When a person dies, the loss of the knowledge is what bothers me the most. All the learned and experiences that took a lifetime of effort to gather,  gone to waste. With no chance to transfer to a young person.

Invent one like this that works...

 

[mistermack]

2 hours ago, Tha_best said:

Knowledge is a collection of memories that you have been taught to remember.

[Phi for All]

Practical application is probably more in line with how we actually learn (as opposed to just input from a source). The education system could apprentice to professionals for specific lessons. Kids could learn arithmetic by training with an accountant, or history from being tour guides at museums, or writing from a newspaper. 

If you don't make an effort to remember something you've learned, the probability of retention goes down over time. Knowledge you gain in practical application is retained longer because you don't just learn it, you use it in real life, and you use it repeatedly.

Maybe we'd use this system more if it didn't look so much like child labor.

[mistermack]

I'm nearly 100% sure that implanting memories will never be possible. The circuits involved in memory are so random, and the possible combinations so vast that it's not going to happen. 

The next best thing though, is wide open to improvement. We've been doing it for years, with books. Now we have pcs, and smartphones and smart watches. 

I have no memory of ever repairing a steering joint on my car. But with a decent manual, I can act as if I've done it before. Not only a manual, but you can now view youtube videos of someone actually doing the job. I think that sort of thing is in it's infancy and it's suffering by not having a financial element. It relies on people doing it for nothing at the moment, and they are generally not great at explaining what they are doing. Once somebody figures out a way to make money, like google did, it could well take off.

On the negative side, I'm convinced that car manufacturers are already reacting to the workshop manuals. I'm sure that they design things deliberately to be more difficult to service these days, and also design in a requirement for special tools. They rely on their dealers making big money on the servicing, and that won't happen if servicing is kept simple. 

[boo]

On 10/14/2019 at 11:20 PM, Externet said:

 

Invent one like this that works...

 

 

 

those are USB 1 connections, you might want something faster than that  

[iNow]

2 hours ago, mistermack said:

I'm nearly 100% sure that implanting memories will never be possible. The circuits involved in memory are so random, and the possible combinations so vast that it's not going to happen. 

The next best thing though, is wide open to improvement. We've been doing it for years, with books. Now we have pcs, and smartphones and smart watches. 

I tend to agree with this. The neural connections in our brain are not like chips on silicon wafers. They grow and shrink and prune and insulate based on each experience. The new experiences map on to past structure from past experiences and change every single time they are accessed.

We can also, as mistermack says, outsource a lot of the stuff we used to have to recall... facts, details, processes... stuff we previously had to remember can now be googled or accessed via files.

There has been work done by DoD IINM that accelerates learning and retention based on transcranial magnetic stimulation, but that's slightly separate as a topic. It speeds and deepens learning, but is still not simple downloading of memories (whatever that would actually mean in context of our wetware biological substrate).

[Phi for All]

2 hours ago, mistermack said:

Not only a manual, but you can now view youtube videos of someone actually doing the job. I think that sort of thing is in it's infancy and it's suffering by not having a financial element. It relies on people doing it for nothing at the moment, and they are generally not great at explaining what they are doing. Once somebody figures out a way to make money, like google did, it could well take off.

Most of those folks get paid by ad revenue based on views. That's the majority of what I use YouTube for, watching someone else do work on my model of car/computer/refrigerator/ceiling fan/whatever so I can figure out if I want to fix it myself or not. I agree that many aren't good at explaining, but as long as they keep the camera on what they're doing, I can usually ignore what they're saying.

I'm not sure one could charge for these types of tutorials, even if they were really good. Why hasn't anyone launched a  subscription version of Facebook, and removed the threat of sharing your information with advertisers? Free is still a powerful concept, powerful enough to overcome a lot of concerns.

2 hours ago, mistermack said:

On the negative side, I'm convinced that car manufacturers are already reacting to the workshop manuals. I'm sure that they design things deliberately to be more difficult to service these days, and also design in a requirement for special tools. They rely on their dealers making big money on the servicing, and that won't happen if servicing is kept simple. 

I think it's the computers on board new cars. You need special diagnostic tools to access them, and figuring out what's causing a problem is a piece of cake if you've got them. Otherwise, you have to do it the old-fashioned way, and choose from three or four possible causes and start checking them out one at a time, hoping you discover it quickly.

This is what allows them to build engine components that Average Joe can't access easily. My father had a '71 Bronco you could climb inside the engine compartment to fix. My latest vehicle I can change air filters and battery on, but not a lot else. 

30 minutes ago, iNow said:

There has been work done by DoD IINM that accelerates learning and retention based on transcranial magnetic stimulation, but that's slightly separate as a topic. It speeds and deepens learning, but is still not simple downloading of memories (whatever that would actually mean in context of our wetware biological substrate).

Is any of this done during sleep? I keep thinking there should be a way to learn (implant memories/knowledge?) effectively while sleeping, as long as the sleep cycle wasn't adversely affected. I seem to remember some claims about learning a foreign language while you sleep. Has that method been rejected? 

[iNow]

33 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

Is any of this done during sleep? I keep thinking there should be a way to learn (implant memories/knowledge?) effectively while sleeping, as long as the sleep cycle wasn't adversely affected. I seem to remember some claims about learning a foreign language while you sleep. Has that method been rejected? 

Sleep is a time where new memories and experiences from the previous day tend to get consolidated, but I don't believe the work I'm referring to was done while in slumber. The individuals were awake and learning just as you and I do every single day, but with some magnetic waves applied to key places at key times.