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Monti_r t1_iui7skc wrote

Reply to comment by SwansonHOPS in Conscious Reality Is Only a Memory of Unconscious Actions, Scientists Propose In Radical New Theory by mossadnik

Being able to remember and being able to willingly remember have far different consequences to solving problems. Say I buried an acorn 6 months ago but I can’t actively remember it, I can only remember it when I’m standing on it. How do I find it?

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thruster_fuel69 t1_iuibvkn wrote

By linking memories together in a chain. First I go to this tree, then beside that rock. I'd imagine it's the same for all animals, wiring memories together in a big relational web.

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fithbert t1_iuih6uz wrote

Not the same for all animals. Some memory, but a large web of memory is not required for seemingly complex “remembering.”

Salmon are barely grown when they head out to the ocean. They stay in the ocean up to seven years, then travel back based on earths magnetic field. No retracing remembered steps, just vibes, for hundreds or thousands of miles. This is just innate/unconscious. Salmon have very limited memory. Scientists think memory is only involved at the very end of that journey, remembering smells that tell them precise locations right around the spawning ground.

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