Do we have a unique ability to learn and remember things?

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Can you read a whole page on wikipedia on a topic that interests you, and then be able learn and recall most of the information accuratly?

In my early teens during secondary school, a lot of things around my environment intrigued me. I questioned a lot of things, I wanted to know how things were created or how they were made, I couldn't accept the effect of things without understanding the cause.
I studied things in detail, I didn't want things filtered down towards a 14 year olds level, I wanted details that a proffesor would understand. I wanted to know the terminolgy, the jargon and how it relates to the subject, every termonology has a meaning that relates to the cause, just as the understanding of the photoelectric effect is needed to explain the operation of a CCD sensor.

Today, not much has changed (apart from the birth of the internet). Every opportunity I have is spent saving websites from wikipedia and wesites associated with my interests and questions, I sometimes find that wikipedia doesn't offer enough information to explain something in detail and then I have to look elsewere for answers. And something considered simple is then understood to be something complex.
I cannot undertand it when people say, 'oh that is too complex for me to understand'?
If a human invented something that he can understands, why can't another human understand the same invention, if it was written by a human, then it should be understood by a human.


Right, my questions.

Do you have the desire to learn the root cause of things and be unable to accept hidden or filtered details?

Does an item in your possesion relate to the desire to undertand?

Does your ability to remember things gives you the confidence to learn?

Yes

Yes


I don't know if it's that. I actually see things in my head. Like I would see the Wikipedia page in my head as if I was looking at it. The same with books, movies, etc. I always took tests as if I was looking through the book. I also drive that way. I see the whole trip in my head. Either I see the map or I actually see the trip if I've already been on it. Mostly I feel as though I hold on to too much. I always want to run a purge file and clean out some of that old data up there.

Photon,

I am just like you! I was ALWAYS shy but, as a kid.... If I wasn't learning how to do the job from a repair man, etc... I was TELLING him how to do it. Sometimes I just got a chance to DO IT MYSELF!

As for special ability? I might say no, but I DO know a LOT about things I learned even AFTER I felt my really special abilities were all but gone.

Steve

Last edited by SteveK on 19 Feb 2007, 11:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks for your comment.

I can't believe I forget to include this.

When Iam learning, reading or remembering, my mind visualises a static image of a street or a town (place) that I regularly visit. When I am learning, reading or remembering I feel as though I am in this image along with the text that I am learning.

It happens all the time, my mind reverts to an image of a place I have visited whenever I am thinking. My mind seems incapable of remembering or learning without some visual interaction, but I always feel as though this connection has to be there in order for me to think.

Yes, my memory is one of my strong points.

I do.

Yes to all three questions, Photon.

(BTW, cool username. Many years ago I was in a superhero RPG game that lasted a few years, in which my character was a superhero called Photon.)

I have a mind like a steel trap for trivia, along with a thirst for new information. I can spend an entire afternoon browsing Wikipedia almost at random, following links that look interesting or looking up a subject that comes to mind, if i have nothing else to do.

Yes, Yes, and Yes. I visualize things that I read, as well, and that helps me remember minute details well, Photon.

The best story I have is about taking a Philosophy Seminar on Bertrand Russell and reading his 760 page Autobiography and I memorized every little detail about his life as if it was my own. Come midterm time, the exam was made up of questions to be answered essay style about his life and I aced it. The Prof announced to the class, with amazement, that the student who got the A+ was taking a Philosophy course for the first time and not even majoring in it. When he called out my name to come and get the graded exam, it was my proudest moment in college, ever. The added bonus was that I did not have to take the final exam! Whoo-hoo!

Cool story! Russel is an interesting person. I can see why you would have wanted to get into his head. I bet that was a wonderful experience.

Yes and no. It depends on the information. I have a lot of trouble remembering words or things as words and because of that, I have a lot of trouble sharing what I know. It's like I know something but I have no words to express that thing. I write down everything verbal that I need to remember because otherwise it's gone in a matter of minutes.

Yes. That's why I'm at university in a subject I'm interested in even though I'm told it's not very practical for getting a job.
Usually, yes.
I'm not really sure. I don't think I've ever really learned things, I just understand them.

Also, I tend to avoid Wikipedia for this reason:

I feel the same way about myself. The problem for me is when I need to learn something I can't understand. This is really apparent in my study of foreign languages. I just can't find a coherent system for learning them and I've always had trouble with rote memorization. I also need to keep away from Wikipedia, hell, the entire internet. I can waste hours up hours just looking up things that interest me.

I used to have a fantastic memory. If something interested me, I could read it once and generally remember a lot of it. If something didn't interest me, I had to work a whole lot harder. These days, my memory is pretty poor which has dampened my enthusiasm for bothering to read up on things, to be truthful. I see no point if it will not sink in totally. I have an underactive thyroid which seems to have greatly diminished my ability at recall as well as my ability to be as sharp thinking.

Thousands of books later, the answer is yes. Wikipedia and WP are the best of the Internet.

The root of the knowledge problem is in, Consilence, the convergance of all knowledge, by a Harvard Entomoligst. Doctor of Natural Philosphy was the highest Degree, it covered everything, and was pure AS, you got real good at what interested you, and got the Degree. Natural learners were the mainstream.

Then came the idea of chopping it up, the sum of human knowledge has been sliced and diced, Geology used to include fossils, soil science, and botany. It was split, and moved apart, so now the knowledge of the decay of rock, formation of soil, and how plants adapt, takes learning in three or more fields.

The idea was more researchers in narrow fields would probe deeper. It proved lopsided, no two progressed together, and no one had the time to read outside of their field. Even if you hire four specialists none of them will speak words with the same meaning as you or the others. They have evolved.

If you wish to know the chemical reactions in soil, how that relates to a hundred tons per acre of invisable life in the top soil, and how that in turn reacts with plants, and how that affects what eats the plants, you have to go to school for a hundred years. Government by the rich, and Universities founded by religious groups, had their reasons.

The last forty years have seen some change. Hypen Science, Bio-Chem, and others, are new bridges, but narrow, between fields created like countries in Africa carved out by European powers without regard for tribes, language, or natural borders.

A Generalist can have dual Doctorates, Bass Fishing and Vollyball, and be unable to replace a blown fuse, or in the path of the people who created the modern era, no papers, no formal education, yet make a great leap forward in knowledge, by looking at the facts. The second is generally frowned on, but they get most of the important Patents. I have more University Credits than Bill Gates.

Most things I have ask me questions. I go from not knowing, to knowing what there is quickly. When I master a subject I discover how shallow it is. This leads to more questions, more study, till I burn out the thread. Then I quit and do something else.

Memory is, I seem unable to forget. I keep running across common images in various fields, the Economy of Nature, snipets of code, the same in divergant fields. Now I scan new things for patterns before going to Wikipedia, and all the books on the subject.

I do associate knowledge with places, maps, every pattern in my head. I do not believe anything, it is just a puzzle part, until it connects with my base knowledge of proven facts, then it snaps into place, and my sorting continues.

Most things are simple, then complex, then simple again, then complex. Facts are not knowledge, knowledge not understanding, and understanding is not wisdom, only the beginning.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a fool who persists in his folly soon becomes wise.

to some people "how does it work?" = "how do i use it?"
i used to think they where idiots, not i see they just have a different view then me.
every person is fully capable of understanding, but most simply do not care.