Silk Protein and Human Memory

[Steve James]

There aren't any informercials for it, so it's probably legit. Now, getting hold of some is another story, if it does work.

[Steve James]

I just ordered some. Now, I just have to take a memory test somehow, so that I can compare the results in two months.

I'm not sure it'll stop me from walking to the kitchen and forgetting why I did.

[GrahamB]

I think Trump had better ideas - you just have to figure out a way to bring the light inside the body. Can't be that hard, can it?

[Dmitri]

I'm not sure it'll stop me from walking to the kitchen and forgetting why I did.

That's ok though, you can't help it anyway
https://neurosciencenews.com/consciousn ... ory-21571/

[Steve James]

“We knew that conscious processes were simply too slow to be actively involved in music, sports, and other activities where split-second reflexes are required. But if consciousness is not involved in such processes, then a better explanation of what consciousness does was needed,” said Budson, who also is Chief of Cognitive & Behavioral Neurology, Associate Chief of Staff for Education, and Director of the Center for Translational Cognitive Neuroscience at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System.

According to the researchers, this theory is important because it explains that all our decisions and actions are actually made unconsciously, although we fool ourselves into believing that we consciously made them.

OK, When I drive a stick shift, I am rarely conscious of changing gears; but, I never forget. Anyway, one of my old teachers would describe that as the Yi at work. Thing is, I've already decided that I should change the gears at specific points (probably triggered by the sounds). But, my point is that, while driving, my "consciousness" is directed at the road, other vehicles, and pedestrians. Yep, it would be impossible for me to think about all those things, and breathe, pump blood, etc., at the same time.

Imo, memory (of the past) and imagination (of the future) aren't the same type of consciousness as the "consciousness" I'm using to be aware of writing this post. I think "will" is hard to define or differentiate as a thought process or product of what we call the mind. (I have dictionaries). It becomes equally difficult to define "unconsciousness." Nowadays, there are many theories arguing that everything is conscious. If so, nothing's unconscious. But, how would humans know what they are not conscious of?

I'm interested in the mechanisms for improving memory. Getting older, so I'm conscious of what I haven't thought about in a long time. I used to be able to identify movie actors instantly. Now, I'm only conscious that I used to know who they were . Maybe the silkworm juice will help.

[Dmitri]

Will/choice boil down to causality -- what came first. Did I decide (using my "conscious mind") to write this reply, or I couldn't help it and the "decision" was nothing but a post-factum illusion.

Regardless -- I hope the juice helps you with that memory! Mine's been declining for a while, as expected, alongside a few other gradually diminishing abilities. Part of life!

[Steve James]

Well, if true, there's really nothing to be done because it's all predetermined.

But, I tend to believe that consciousness is quantum, not causal.

[Dmitri]

I'm betting on the Heisenberg principle biting the dust eventually, as our tools for observation improve. Similar to geocentrism, aether and many other scientific theories that were solid in their time.

It's just that probabilism seems a bit like a universal cop-out theory that's impossible to argue against, but which doesn't *really* solve/answer anything.

[Steve James]

Well, that's the main problem with determinism; there's no way to prove it wrong. f course, everything that happens "now" is the direct product of what happened the instant before. That's not really disputable, in terms of physics and chemistry. However, apart from physical and chemical changes, it's fairly impossible to predict what is going to happen. It's not Heisenberg uncertainty; it's more the idea of entropy, when it comes to those changes.

Anyway, I said that consciousness is quantum, because it's neither Newtonian, nor Einsteinian. I.e., as pointed out in the neuroscience article, things happen too fast for us to react. We can react to a punch in the blink of an eye, but that doesn't mean the punch or the blink was pre-determined. But, afa the reaction time, it's more like a photon hitting a leaf and affecting the entire leaf simultaneously. It should be impossible, physically; but life on Earth couldn't exist without that quantum effect. Yes, the photon had an origin, and we can rewind the clock. But, that doesn't explain the processes within the leaf that have evolved. They may even be conscious, but few would argue they have "free will" -and that's where I agree with determinism. Otherwise, it's a theory I accept, but find totally useless when it comes to mental processes.

Hey, just got my memory pills today. I'll remember to if it works. Biggest issue, so far, is knowing actor's faces but not being able to remember the name.

[everything]

little bit the same with actors, but figured I just don't care at all about them now. it is a bit annoying, though.

[Dmitri]

Biggest issue, so far, is knowing actor's faces but not being able to remember the name.

That's funny, I just had this happen -- couldn't remember the name of the actress who played "Thirteen" on House. I knew that I "knew" it; just couldn't recall, for a few hours (refused to look her up). Pissed me off... Oh well, things could be much, much worse.

[jimmy]

Let’s say that consciousness exists as a standing wave function at the terminus of a feed-forward neural net process, where automated perceptual cognitions and resultant sensorimotor behaviors produce some sort of an a posteriori awareness that an unconscious decision has just been made. Given the ubiquity of feedback channels and attenuative processing in the neural architecture, freewill should thus effectively exist as an ex post facto process of skillfully modulating the bleeding edge of unconscious decision making toward a memory-centric vision of the way one wishes things had been been in a previous, (slightly?) unsuccessful run of a circuit problem.

[Steve James]

Interesting Jimmy, check out this abstract.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29371042/

Um, the question of whether consciousness can influence chemistry (synapses, in this case).

[everything]

that is funny, then, how much time we spend in training to try to not use consciousness when performing some kind of skilled, rapid task.

[Dmitri]

...freewill should thus effectively exist as an ex post facto process of skillfully modulating the bleeding edge of unconscious decision making toward a memory-centric vision of the way one wishes things had been been in a previous, (slightly?) unsuccessful run of a circuit problem.

Hmm... Interesting, but it feels like it's trying too hard to squeeze out an explanation that fits into a predefined (wishfully-thought?) "agenda" possibly stemming from a particular cognitive bias.
I'm sticking (admittedly, also possibly as a product of my own cognitive bias) with the Occam's razor on this one, for the time being -- although I'll definitely give this idea some more thought!

<YouTube>a pretend song by KISS called "Principle"</YouTube>