Sunday, August 17, 2014

Synaptical bypasses. By (me!) Sandra, tvgp

HOW it occurred to me:   oh! Someone get Eric kandel on the phone for me again..   Points I need to make:

~ we are not computers.. But! NOTHING serves better for analogies; so..

From this phone I have in my hand write now, I can go to the internet and pull up my blog.  My blog, by the way, has over 2,013 posts..  Theres lots of stuff there, but that's not my point

MY POINT is..  The default setting does NOT include a search bar.  So I have no quick way.. Except to go literally post by post.. To find a certain story

IF however, I click on the hyperlink text which reads "web version"

Ah!  Now there is a search bar!!  And in it, I can type as little as one word from any given story/post..  And voilà!   Instant access.

SEARCH BARS are HIGHLY VALUABLE and I'm noticing that they are going missing as various technologies change..  Especially as we've moved from desktop computers to phones!

I.e., I used the phone I have in my hand to research a story I wrote for the pleasanton patch.  -when their website comes up..

Where has the search bar gone?   Mandatory for research..

And then..  Even with the search bar..  You can only access the 2nd part of a two part Interview I wrote about "Shinn".   Purple heart veteran..

When I asked the editor (remarkable editor, by the way.. Doing the job of 12 people I think).  -she explained that when they switched to a new format..  Everything prior to a given date...

GONE.

All this is relevant to how our memories work; that's why I need to talk to Eric kandel..

-sometimes, the memories..  Our memories.. " they are there!". But we need the equivalent of a search bar..  A quick way to access them.  No search bar path.. No access to what is potentially a mother lode of memories..

VS!

Memories that no longer exist..

VS

Memories that never did..

But let's stick with memories.. That do exist but that we can't recall for one reason or another..

Its because.. A pathway has been removed or blocked

So!  You're going to have to create a bypass..  Or a bridge.. Or a tunnel.. 

A new route to an old location.   May I also dedicate this post to all the neuroscientists and neurosurgeons in the world..

Synaptic bypass surgery ... For access to memories.

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