The persistence of memory. Why on Earth?

Question

Why do we remember, here and now, when we are no longer there?

Answer 1

Becuse if you didn't you would never learn a thing. You would be a goldfish who forgets one side of the bowl every time he swims past it in a circle......

Answer 2

There is always a message in the memories that come persistently to our mind, and memories that often haunt us for long time into our lives. If I regard memory as a thing, then like all other things a persisting memory has its own characteristics that make it so unique and distinctive in the mind that it would be still visible through the din of many things that happened since and across many times passed over and into the moment present. The persistence is one characteristic that make certain memories stand out of the rest. What makes something so unique that it simply never goes away? Is the question. And if there is message then that message need to be hear, or if there is some happiness then that needs to be decoded too, or shared, of fulfilled.

If this sounds like a psychological analysis then I present my own example here. I am partly composed of my past experience. The experiences that give me memories. But these memories are not disjunctive, there are mostly coherent and harmonious. If I have something in my past that is so good or for that matter so bad or different than all the rest of the things then that thing I feel I need to consolidate into my life, and perhaps persisting memories try to tell us just that.

Answer 3

memory is only in the persistance, without the persistance of an impression formed at a particular moment there would be no need to discuss memory. the persistance of it, and its being memory are the same statment about a perception from a certain incident.

you experiance it because it is useful, because it helps to make you fitter for your environment. That memories are of things we may not like mearly says that the world we experiance conatins things we feel distaste for. As far as i am aware the sound of your past speeking to you is diffrent from the chatter of the various parts of you that mediate the present.

Answer 4

We use our memory as a tool when we are forming opinions, our likes and dislikes, and our choices as we experience life.
When people move away and come back, their memories are the things which serve to ground them into their reality, once they've returned. Many come back with a new perspective, although their earlier memories persist, and their lives are governed by the memories they already have. There is a lot of emotions invested in memories.

Answer 5

We are wherever we have been. We are a sum total of all our memories and experiences. Time is a winding river that goes on even after it has gone around a bend. We don't see it but it is still going. It's when we don't remember past things that we are in deep doodoo. Wish I had the brains to come up with this myself but some insignificant guy named Einstein came up with this little theory. Still, weird to think the past present and future all exist at once in us. ( Time for another beer, I'm getting too big for my britches)

Answer 6

Errr... because the creatures that didn't remember the other side of the goldfish bowl died too quickly to pass on their genes?
It is beneficial to remember $#!t, for all the reasons already expressed and more.
Different answer... Perhaps we don't. Perhaps we just retain our interpretations of the expired "here-and-now." How accurate those interpretations are depends on the person. Perhaps we are amnesiacs and don't even retain... err... I'm sorry... Did you ask a question?

Answer 7

you have to pardon me for the possible incoherence of this composition due to the fact that my memory persists on taking a break from mind right now.
But i think you are asking why does memory/ies keep coming back to haunt you.
My answer, it has a lot to do with the degree of emotions you have spent on it, now the residual balance of that event/thing/person still obviously governs your mind.

Answer 8

You can only remember whats in the past. You dont remember "the here and now" because it's still happening, but in five seconds time when "now" is "then" you'll remember it...confused yet?

Answer 9

Salvador Dali (20th century Spanish painter) may have asked a similar question.

Follow the link below. His painting may also provide an answer.

Answer 10

I think it is because in the true reality (whatever it is), there is no time and no space.
So memory (as well as feelings of deja vu) must be repercussions of that true reality coming through (everything happening all at once everywhere and nowhere).
Whew.