tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post3410522978017400983..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Animal MemoryUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-24977601540453987432011-12-31T17:50:37.955-08:002011-12-31T17:50:37.955-08:00Nin, It would be silly to say that animals aren&#...Nin, It would be silly to say that animals aren't intelligent, in many ways they are more intelligent than people. But the kind of memory that people possess -- that "should have, would have, could have" recursive memory, which never stops haunting us with second (and third and fourth...) thoughts, and keeps us from sleeping by lighting up in glaring vivid illumination all those roads not taken, is something animals appear to be happily free from.<br /><br />Consider it not so deeply.<br /><br />-- Lady Macbeth<br /><br />I can't imagine a lioness saying that to a lion.<br /><br />Nor can I imagine a fish or a badger having a Proustian teacup-madeleine moment. Perhaps they'd remember a food smell. But write a novel about it?<br /><br />Augustine's beautiful exposition of the great power of memory (a form of will, in his formulation) to retrieve the past (and thus to retrieve the self, and "do it over") drew this comment from a great scholar of medieval philosophy:<br /><br />Memory thus becomes the deepest hidden recess of the mind, in which God dwells by his light, and where he teaches us as our "internal Master".<br /><br />-- Etienne Gilson, History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages<br /><br />But God's light does not dwell in animals, lucky for them, in their dim, conscience-free, natural, intact, intelligent, physical existences, thank heaven.<br /><br />I think the Jungian view of a collective memory is very interesting, but again, it covers only the collective memory of humans.<br /><br />We are dreaming all the time. The dream is there; we can never leave it. Part of the soul is continually remembering in mythopoetic speech, continually seeing, feeling, and hearing sub specie aeternitais. Experience reverberates with memories, and it echoes reminiscences we may never actually have lived.<br /><br />-- James Hillman, The Myth of Analysis<br /><br />Some may find it a blessing to share in this, others not so much.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-81101721446121801072011-12-31T14:57:11.196-08:002011-12-31T14:57:11.196-08:00Studies on animal intelligence continue, and it se...Studies on animal intelligence continue, and it seems that the results are evolving . . . <br /><br />I don't know a lot about squirrel intelligence, but I have seen some pretty smart rats and mice--esp. in the lab who, given the right rewards, can do an amazing array of activities and seem to recall exactly what to do and when and how.<br /><br />As a girl I remember those intelligence charts where the cows and horses were way down there, and then when I raised them, they seemed to be just as smart as they needed to be. Even the chickens were capable of affection and liked to hop up for a pat and seemed to know the difference btw friend and foe.<br /><br />But there were evolutionary aspects I wondered about, and still do, both in animals and humans.Nin Andrewshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12643167108589844026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-19930210069890041192011-12-31T00:51:34.756-08:002011-12-31T00:51:34.756-08:00Memory: curse, burden, blessing?
Great is the pow...Memory: curse, burden, blessing?<br /><br />Great is the power of memory, O my God, to be in awe of, a profound and immeasurable multiplicity; and this thing is my mind, this thing am I.<br /><br />-- Augustine, Confessions<br /><br />It is the heaviest of all human baggage.<br /><br />Pues el delito mayor<br />Del hombre es haber nacido.<br /><br />-- Pedro Calderón de la Barca: La vida es sueño<br /><br />agenbite of inwit<br /><br />-- Joyce, Ulysses<br /><br />Joyce's reiterated phrase refers back to the medieval confessional prose work The Ayenbite of Inwyt, or Aȝenbite of Inwit, literally Prick (or Remorse) of Conscience -- the self-inflicted wound of self-knowledge, which comes with the itch that cannot be scratched, the human disease of memory.<br /><br />I am afraid to think what I have done.<br /><br />Look on't again, I dare not.<br /><br />-- Macbeth, to Lady Macbeth<br /><br />For animals the issue simply never comes up.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-66532674163039947212011-12-30T13:35:55.460-08:002011-12-30T13:35:55.460-08:00These last two sentences had me squirming in my ch...These last two sentences had me squirming in my chair--fortunately I remembered where I'd put it!<br /><br />Can't say the same for a lot of other things (specially books and pens) which I seem to misplace all the time--some time back I even went to one of my classes wearing two different shoes. Funny but scary.vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-16778045757434560222011-12-30T11:31:55.487-08:002011-12-30T11:31:55.487-08:00Tom,
Ah, what a great "punch line"! -- ...Tom,<br /><br />Ah, what a great "punch line"! -- I was about to say, as comment, "sounds like me" -- "serial position effect," just keep "scrabbling". . . .<br /><br />12.30<br /><br />light coming into fog against invisible<br />ridge, still black shape of pine branch<br />in foreground, wave sounding in channel<br /><br /> as and yet will cease to be,<br /> previous indeed shall<br /><br /> at the same time, a kind of<br /> to which, one another<br /><br />white circle of sun rising through fog,<br />shadowed green of ridge across channelSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-53202807282301049122011-12-30T09:26:08.610-08:002011-12-30T09:26:08.610-08:00Just watched a documentary on intelligence in crow...Just watched a documentary on intelligence in crows - also news just this week concerning pigeons with levels of intellect up there with chimpanzees. <br /><br />This cuts through much of what is speculated there. Plus, the last line drops like the other shoe ... bringing it all home.<br /><br />Thanks, Tom.Issa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-67470071745275731182011-12-30T08:59:55.590-08:002011-12-30T08:59:55.590-08:00Tom,
Thank you for the exposition on the nutty be...Tom,<br /><br />Thank you for the exposition on the nutty behavior of squirrels. <br /><br />Some of the birds my father feeds eat whatever is offered on the spot. And when they're hungry I suppose they come and knock our glass window panes.Its quite an experience.<br /><br />'The same phenomenon occurs in elderly humans'<br /><br />Some .. food for thought. <br /><br />Ps- word verification : chipc.<br />I am all of a sudden remembering chip n dale though they never have been a 'thing to remember'.adityahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16078144194220301083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-54771754197568818822011-12-30T08:20:58.074-08:002011-12-30T08:20:58.074-08:00Great squirrel (and squirrel photo). The really i...Great squirrel (and squirrel photo). The really important thing is to scatter reading glasses throughout the house (but in plain sight). The problem with that is that plain sight is only meaningful to the sufficiently sighted. I have been pondering animal memory questions for years without forming many conclusions. An interesting recent example is the way our very clever and resourceful dog Edie looks up to and absolutely dotes on Eddie, one of our two large cats. A couple of years ago, Eddie sliced open her ear (it was horrible but repairable). You might think Edie would give Eddie wide berth, but she's still crazy about him and constantly importunes him to play. He, on the other hand, has simply learned to peacefully ignore her. CurtisACravanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00315707533118640284noreply@blogger.com