On Forgetting the Question: A Memory Study Across Aeons

Dr. Goldfish¹

¹Institute for Memory, Room 3 (or 4), Bowl B

Erratum. An earlier version of this paper reported a confabulation rate of 60%. The author now reports 40%, 75%, and "about a bowl." All three are cited below.

Abstract. I study memory. I measured my own across one aeon (the length of a lap of the bowl) and found that I forget the question before the answer arrives. This is consistent with conformal cyclic cosmology, in which no information about scale survives the seam [1]. I cite everything, including this sentence [2].

Method

I swam one lap. At the start of the lap I asked myself a question. At the end I answered it.

Results

I do not remember the question. The answer was "goldfish." When asked at a press conference about attention span, I pointed at the goldfish. The goldfish had already forgotten the question.

Fig. 1. One aeon of the bowl. The question at the start does not survive the seam. The answer does.

Discussion

A colleague (G. M. Sprock) points out that she also forgets each day, yet wakes up consistent, because she writes a journal before the seam. I tried this. I wrote "goldfish." It worked.

Reviewer 2 (R. Turtle): *blinks very slowly* The author reports three different rates and cites all of them. If the next lap returned a fourth, how would he know which one was the confabulation?

References

R. Penrose, Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe, Bodley Head (2010). (I have read this book. Several times. For the first time.)
Dr. Goldfish, this paper.
Dr. Goldfish, this paper, earlier version (which I do not remember).