#93 Second-Hand Memories and Trust Issues

ByLukas
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Memory stores the lessons we extract from learn life experience. And to do so, it relies, modifies, adds, subtracts, highlights, and hides.

What about second-hand memories? Accounts of past events we didn’t experience ourselves, wars, volcano eruptions, scientific discoveries,…

For knowledge to accumulate, to stand on the shoulders of giants, we need to transmit such lessons too. Not just as data or accounts of the past – also as memories.

But transmitting second-hand memories require trust.

Can we rely on the interpretation of others?

Who do we allow to control the narrative?

Parents? Elders? Teachers? Governments and politicians?

YouTubers? Influencers? Bloggers? Twitter gurus?

AI models and chatbots?

Objective data doesn’t exist. Objective memories don’t exist either. So if we can’t trust second-hand memories anymore, collective memory and our whole learning model collapses.

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    You’re dissatisfied with your physical fitness, but not so much that you’re in pain every day – so you put up with slow deterioration.

    You’re dissatisfied with your current job, but not so much that you’re dragging yourself to work – so you put up with unfulfilling days.

    Being satisfied with some areas of your life is good.

    Being intensely dissatisfied with some areas of your life is fine, too – because that unhappiness can be the leverage you need to make a change.

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    And if not, I hope you’re at least intensely dissatisfied.

    Let that be the fuel you need to take action to change.

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