Ryan Roberts - Do We Remember the Womb?

     I know that I already disagreed with this in class, but God has this been eating me alive since. I couldn't properly articulate my point in class, but I'll try my best here. In essence, I think that most of the evidence of our "memories" of the womb are actually just instincts. Allow me to explain.

    Firstly, "remember" is the worst possible word that could be selected for this type of exercise. Scientifically, remembering something means recalling an episodic memory and... well... remembering it. It is physically impossible to create episodic memories between the ages of 0 - 3. This is called infant amnesia and is caused because the hippocampus (the thing in the brain that creates memories) isn't fully developed yet. Much in the same way that we cannot hear if our auditory lobe is damaged, we cannot form memories without a hippocampus.

    "But what about remembering Grandma and Grandpa?" Nope, not memory before 3. This is something called associative learning, which doesn't require memories. This is done via repetition, which is just saying something over and over again until they say it. When your baby says "Mama" for the first time, they don't create a memory. They associate Mama with a person and use it to get that person's attention.

    Okay, so we can't make memories. What about things like muscle memory? Muscle memory is actually part of what is called Procedural Memory. This is a type of memory that cannot be accessed, and is generally not counted as "remembering" despite what we all tend to say in regular conversation. In fact, someone with no short or long term memory would be able to ride a bike, play piano, or walk. People walk without thinking "I put my left foot here, put my weight on it, pick up the other one, move it forward in the air..." etc etc etc. And I bring up walking because it's still debated whether this is Procedural Memory or instinctual. Can you see where I'm going with this?

    Babies are born with certain instincts. I don't have time to go over all of them, but just know that these are done without thinking. These are all based in our automatic protective factors, or what kept our species alive as it was developing. So allow me to use an animal as an example of my point. When cats sleep, they tend to curl up into a ball. Animal behavioralists say that this is because the cat is put into a vulnerable state and needs to protect its vital organs, hence, curling up into a ball.

    But when a human curls up into a ball, it's because we're remembering something physically impossible to remember? I don't think so. I think that when humans are overwhelmed or feeling unsafe, we tend to curl up and protect ourselves. And if we want a more direct comparison, many people also sleep in a fetal position, much like cats. Are cats afraid when they sleep? No. Are humans? No. It's something that we did when we weren't as safe sleeping out in the open. When we were evolving.

    Humans are far more animalistic than we think. As much as we want to think that we're evolved, we are just as tribal as animals. And I think that our instincts cause certain behaviors. Not memories that physically can't exist. I could understand taking this info and saying it's procedural memory, but I'll say it's instincts and we can agree to disagree. Have a wonderful day! ♥

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kip Redick Example of a Blog Post

 Page 4 Michael Taussig would suggest Juan's understanding of the meaning of a place emerges out of the process of an imitation of all the “differences” that we discern there. We mimic (in language and action) the full range of sounds, movements, and other sensory perceptions that come to us from the more than human world.” It’s hard to put a place that strikes us as sublime into mere words; we can try to describe it as a feeling and try to put language to that feeling, but sometimes the feeling of the beauty of nature or the power of a sacred space is too big to try to translate or make sense of. Would every place and experience be subjective, and would the discourse be the same? Would the mountain top make me feel the same as another? Or does my personal experience with the natural world and divine keep it intimate/ unique, or would my experience be relatable enough? The author uses the messiness, ambiguity, and mystery of people's deeply personal experience of ...
Read more

Rose Baker - Herbert's "Dune" and Martyrs

  In class, we talked about Jesus and Christianity as an example of myth. Myths and martyrs are dangerous to systems of control because even if they’re suppressed, they can survive and grow stronger. They last because they’re tied to belief, memory, and emotion---things you can’t fully erase. That’s what makes them more powerful than systems built on forced order or control. Even though much of the early church died gruesome deaths, and were consistently ordered to stop spreading the gospel, the "myth" of Jesus has continued for over 2000 years.      In Frank Herbert's  Dune , we see something similar. The Bene Gesserit know how powerful myths can be, and instead of waiting for one to form naturally, they build one on purpose. Through the Missionaria Protectiva , they plant stories and prophecies across different cultures, preparing the world for someone to fulfill the one part they can't fabricate, the living, breathing "savior" who must be visible and prov...
Read more

Joanah Eresechima - Blue Lock's Exploration of Flow

In the sixth chapter of American Camino , the concept of flow is extensively explained in the context of spiritual walking. It is described as unification of action and awareness to create a state in which thoughts are non-existent. The hiker just moves through the world, extremely aware and focused on the wilderness around them but unable to thoroughly reflect on it in that moment. It is only afterwards that the hiker is able to recall the memories from their flow state. Flow can occur in different types of people like artists, scientists and athletes (Redick 249). I was actually very surprised to see this term in the book because it becomes one of the central components in a manga I read called Blue Lock. The story followed a boy named Isagi Yoichi, a high school soccer player who got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join a soccer program called Blue Lock meant to create the greatest striker in the world. Out of 300 players, he was ranked 299 th , making him one of the weakest p...
Read more