The Mind Is Not a Computer
✦ On Forgetting & Fragments ✦ A reflection on memory, metaphor, and harm. It argues against simplistic models of the mind, framing forgetting as essential and retrieval as perilous. Engage with this as a piece of philosophical prose.
✦ ᚺ ᚢ ᚲ ᚺ ✦
I’ve said this before, but it keeps coming back. The idea that the mind is a computer.
It always makes me wonder why so many programmers want to become hypnotists. Maybe they’re looking for something else they can pretend is logical, orderly, and predictable.
I recently read a post that claimed the following:
The mind is a computer, and with hypnosis you can access perfect memory.
Oh, sweet summer child. Perfect memory does not exist, no matter how much people wish it did.
Yes, hypnosis can sometimes help access memories. Yes, it can also create false ones.
But you’re already missing the point.
Why do you think we forget things? Because the mind is a broken machine?
No.
Most of the time we forget because:
it wasn’t important
it wasn’t necessary for survival
or because remembering it would cause more harm than good
Forgetting is not a flaw. It is a function.
Retrieve what was forgotten without care, and people break— like a mirror thrown against the floor. Later, you walk barefoot. And the fragments cut you again and again.
✦ᛉJuliusᛇ✦
