What Can We Trust?

ShaggyJebus · 2010-02-20T07:14:16-01:00

I'll start with something very simple that I think everyone can relate to and understand - our memories are not perfect. We can remember things the wrong way, make up things that didn't actually happen, or completely forget something. It's even been shown that you can place fake memories into a person's head; you can convince a 30-year-old that he was left in the mall by his parents when he was a kid, even though no such incident ever occurred. This fact is often brought up when people claim to see ghosts or be abducted by aliens, and for good reason. If our memories can be corrupted, or if we cannot be certain that our memories reflect the truth, how can we say that seeing a ghost is proof that they exist? The thing is, people tend to stop there. No one questions whether the man they met in Starbucks last week really existed or not. People just use memory problems as a way of explaining away odd things but never question how it may affect our normal lives. I've heard that one part of the brain remembers something, while a different part remembers where the knowledge was obtained. So, I may remember that there are 6 gallons of blood in the human body while being unsure of where I got that fact. This can lead to big problems, especially if you're mixing comedy with real life. A comedian may jokingly say that 90% of all marriages end in divorce, and you may believe that you heard the statistic from the news. Our memory cannot be completely trusted. All of our senses, honestly, because they are not perfect. Who hasn't smelled something that wasn't there or mistaken one thing for another? But if we cannot trust what we see and hear and even feel, what can we trust? The main question I have for everyone is, how do you find a balance between being skeptical of everything and being flat-out paranoid? Are you only unsure of your senses if you experience something that seems strange? Do you question your senses and your mind all the time, wondering if what are you experiencing is real or an imagination? Do you sit comfortably, believing that since you are not schizophrenic, you do not have to worry about that sort of thing? Or do you worry that you can never truly know whether something is a delusion or not, because only other people can classify you as schizophrenic or delusional, and who's to say that they are not delusions?

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Hoshi

14 years ago

Hmm, i tend not to remember things, or not remember of of what happens. My simple solution to this ( started about 3 years ago ): I carry a digital camera with me at all times.

Sometimes i take pics, and sometimes i shoot video, but the point is the memory is still there.

I ended up showing a friend of mine a video of us a few years back, and he burst out in shock because he never remembered the day that was on the film.

i wont say i don't trust my memory, but i do keep a good backup of data of it on video.

OwO

Rusty Hammer

14 years ago

i once read a quote that went something like : a person who KNOWS something is very dangerous. i'm sure i screwed it up, and i can't remember who said it. what is really scary is how many people are convicted based soley on eyewtness testimony.

serpentura

14 years ago

truth is when a bunch of experts groups together to discuss a specific subject using scientific procedure. And if they all agree at the end product, that's the time they will believe that something is real.

In my case, the only thing that i can trust are things that are backed-up by proofs.

vknight

14 years ago

I say do a leap of faith. True, out memories are faulty, but if we allow ourselves to be bothered by something so insignificant as its reliability then we can never move forward. Kind of like how modern psychologists and scientists don't believe we have free will.

HOTSAUSE

14 years ago

loosehead99 wrote...

A gallon of water weighs 8 lbs. Are you positive we have 6 gallons of blood in us?

How about 10 pints!

lol i like this

Darkstonedeity4

14 years ago

Here's the thing about paranoia: Those people who you hear about, who live in their basements wearing tinfoil holding shotguns convinced aliens are after them?

They're alive.

Besides, even if you can't trust your own memory to be 100% accurate, at the very least it functions as a rough guideline.

Evnyofdeath

14 years ago

Your right about our memories. Everytime we remember something it is changed. Our most precious memories are the first be to warped beyond recognition.

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