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Funes, the Memorius
18
Funes,
the Memorius
look at this coffee stain
If you're like the rest of us, you are capable of conjuring the image in your mind, but what we don't always aknowledge is that the image we see in our heads is a very rough generalization of the original which our brain tricks us into believing to be quite similar to the original.
Thank you for your attention!
Borges
Funes would remember every detail of this presentation, but wouldn't be able to make any new connections because of it.
Borjes argues that someone who couldn't forget a difference would be, essentially, like a computer. They wouldn't make new conjectures or generalizations or patterns because all they would know would be facts.
Many people are inclined to say that if someone had the ability to recall all of the exact details of a
picture, that person
would have an incredible
advantage over everyone
else and could easilly be
extremly intelligent.
This effect is exaggerated when you try to make a physical depiction of the original. You should find that all you are actually sure of is a general beige color and some circular shapes.
Hours, even days later, a person is able to picture the image again, but each time the recreation is less and less true to the original.
Study the image for a few seconds, then look away and try to recall the same picture.
In "Funes the Memorius," Jorge Luis Borges tells a story about his experiences as a teenager in Uruguay, where he meets an exceptional child,
Ireneo Funes. After a physical
incident, Funes has the
inhuman ability to recall
literally everything since his
injury. Though he considers
his new talent to be a gift,
Borjes suggests that by not
forgetting, it is impossible to live.
Eiditic Memory versus Funes
Often refered to as photographic memory, an eiditic mind has an extraordinary ability to recall visuals, sounds, and other perceptions.
Stephen Wiltshire can accurately depict the skyline of a city after seeing it once from helicopter.
Borges' fictional savant, however, is described as remembering every detail of everything he experienced, every day, and later on remember not only the details, but remember remembering what he remembers.
On international pi day, Daniel Tammet correctly recited over 22,000 digets of pi.
Magical Realism
The essential difference between the eiditic people alive today and Ireneo Funes is that real people have the ability to forget, while Funes is trapped with his own experiences.
This hypothetical, infinite memory is Borges' magically realist method of explaining his definition of thought: "To think is to forget a difference, to generalize, to abstract." (115)