The Philosophy of Memory and Imagination

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Sarah Robins is a philosopher at the University of Kansas, one a growing handful of philosophers specializing in memory. Much of her work focuses on memory traces, which is roughly the idea that somehow our memories leave a trace in our minds. We discuss memory traces themselves and how they relate to the engram (see BI 126 Randy Gallistel: Where Is the Engram?, and BI 127 Tomás Ryan: Memory, Instinct, and Forgetting).

Psychology has divided memories into many categories - the taxonomy of memory. Sarah and I discuss how memory traces may cross-cut those categories, suggesting we may need to re-think our current ontology and taxonomy of memory.

We discuss a couple challenges to the idea of a stable memory trace in the brain. Neural dynamics is the notion that all our molecules and synapses are constantly changing and being recycled. Memory consolidation refers to the process of transferring our memory traces from an early unstable version to a more stable long-term version in a different part of the brain. Sarah thinks neither challenge poses a real threat to the idea

We also discuss the impact of optogenetics on the philosophy and neuroscience and memory, the debate about whether memory and imagination are essentially the same thing, whether memory's function is future oriented, and whether we want to build AI with our often faulty human-like memory or with perfect memory.

• Sarah's website.
• Twitter: @SarahKRobins.
• Related papers:
  • Her Memory chapter, with Felipe de Brigard, in the book Mind, Cognition, and Neuroscience: A Philosophical Introduction.
  • Memory and Optogenetic Intervention: Separating the engram from the ecphory.
  • Stable Engrams and Neural Dynamics.

0:00 - Intro 4:18 - Philosophy of memory 5:10 - Making a move 6:55 - State of philosophy of memory 11:19 - Memory traces or the engram 20:44 - Taxonomy of memory 25:50 - Cognitive ontologies, neuroscience, and psychology 29:39 - Optogenetics 33:48 - Memory traces vs. neural dynamics and consolidation 40:32 - What is the boundary of a memory? 43:00 - Process philosophy and memory 45:07 - Memory vs. imagination 49:40 - Constructivist view of memory and imagination 54:05 - Is memory for the future? 58:00 - Memory errors and intelligence 1:00:42 - Memory and AI 1:06:20 - Creativity and memory errors