• Question: Why do we have memories?

    Asked by anon-186882 to Stewart, Miriam, Laura, Kathryn, David on 14 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: David Ho

      David Ho answered on 14 Nov 2018:

      I’m no expert in this, but the answer to “why” questions about living things is “it makes us more likely to survive”. If we can remember a situation we’ve been in, we can react more quickly if we encounter the same situation again. So if we’ve been stung by a nettle before, we remember what it was like so we don’t need to touch it again to find out if it’s safe to touch! Through the process of evolution living things develop features that make them more likely to survive — I would guess that memory is one of these.

      If you’d like to learn more about this you can read about Darwin’s Theory of Evolution — what I’ve given is a very brief description of “Natural Selection”, or “Survival of the fittest”

      https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/evolution1.htm

    • Photo: Stewart Martin-Haugh

      Stewart Martin-Haugh answered on 14 Nov 2018:

      We wouldn’t know about it if we didn’t, of course! As David says, it’s probably beneficial for survival – animals can remember things too, which helps them pass on information to the next generation. When I kept tropical fish as a child, you could teach them to expect food by tapping on the glass.

      There are some interesting cases of people unable to form any memories in the present:

      but who can still remember events from the past and keep their old skills (for instance, Clive Wearing could still play the piano). I’m not an expert in this area but I can recommend Oliver Sacks’ books about the mind if you’d like to find out more.

    • Photo: Miriam Hogg

      Miriam Hogg answered on 15 Nov 2018:

      Like David and Stewart have said I think this is about evolution and survival. The more you know about your environment and any dangers and resources it has the higher your survival rate.I think that memories are also important because they also help you learn.
      If you went fishing for a few months and always started at one place and worked your way upstream and found that every time you always caught more upstream then eventually you would realise its better for you to start upstream because you will catch more fish! Our memories help us survive and become better at collecting food and keeping safe.

      There have been cases of people who have lost memories or become unable to retain memories and most of them require constant help and supervision because they have no way to remember what things are dangerous. If you touched a wire and got an electric shock you would remember not to do that again, but a person with no memory would keep touching the wire because they have no reason not too, even though it will hurt them every time!

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