Discussion question of the day: memory

[another_normal_anomaly]

 Would you rather have a perfect semantic memory (the ability to recall any fact you've ever learned) or a perfect episodic memory (the ability to recall what you were doing at any past moment)? I realize your answer is likely to depend on implementation details, so feel free to make up some that make sense to you.

Comments

Re: Neither (without some forgetfullness)

[sonata_green]

That's a really interesting point. I was going to say that you can hack your way to both by taking episodic and then remembering the moment of learning the fact (e.g. if you read something in a book, you can remember what the page looked like and "reread"), or if you figure something out on your own then you could just say it out loud or write it down or something.

Anyway, I'm persuaded in favor of forgetfulness. If I have to pick one, I'd take semantic. If I get control, I'd take episodic.