Total Recall: Woman Remembers Every Minute of Every Day Since She Was 14

Kind of cool. It's apparently not a photographic memory, but a "superior autobiographical memory," allowing her (or inflicting up on her) the ability to remember just about everything that's ever happened to her.

I have a question about how they've determined her to be "bona fide," though. They determine this, they say, by checking her recall versus the diaries she's kept since a teenager; but that doesn't prove she remembers her life. That proves she's memorized her own diaries.

Another big offer of proof from her as well as another man who's stepped forward to reveal his gift is the fact that she can remember what day of the week any particular date fell upon. The trouble is... there's a mathematical formula to determine that. I don't know it off the top of my head (obviously), and, being crap at math, I probably couldn't crunch the numbers within a second or two, but I'm sure other people can.

So I don't know. It's not so much that I doubt this is possible as I'm just unimpressed by the proof that these people can remember what they say they remember.

August 8th, 1983: I ate a grilled cheese sandwich and watched a Simon & Simon episode on VHS. That A.J. can be such a square.

Who's going to call bullshit? Hell, there's a 10% chance that's actually right, anyway.

I can haz certification as having a superior autobiographical memory?

And? The Rocketeer isn't impressed--

Big whoop. Every woman I've ever known claims this. It's especially true for every slight (perceived or real), every neutral-to-negative comment about her weight, hairstyle, sartorial choices, cooking, conversational skills, etc. In fact, it's the very reason no man, anywhere, will ever "win" an argument with a woman, whether she actually, in truth, "wins" or not. How the fuck is this news?

posted by Ace at 11:49 AM

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