From the song “The Way We Were”, by Barbra Streisand: “What’s too painful to remember we simply choose to forget...”

But there may not be any discrimination in an autistic person as to what to forget. Why throw away data? It might be useful. If stuff has to be mulled over rather than processed on-the-fly in some more intuitive manner, then it seems risky to toss out any information. Upon later reflection, who knows what piece might be the key to understanding some situation or person, or learning more about one’s (dare I say it?) self?

Elsewhere in this collection of writings I may have made reference to autistic folks’ different concept of time. Perhaps this comes from a different use of memory. A computer example this time: one way to “save” a data file is to simply write it to a storage device. This method is universally used. But another is to take a snapshot of the entire working memory of the computer, which includes not only the data file but an image of the internal state of the machine itself, and save that instead.

Now consider what happens when the file is accessed. In the first case, the data from the file is brought into the present-moment internal state of the computer and made part of it. But in the second case, the entire internal state of the computer is restored to the point at which the file was saved. Which social memory will be more vivid? Which will be seen from a present-time perspective and which will instead be reexperienced? Which is more apt to be overwhelming or paralyzing in its demand for reanalysis?

Then add that to my original thought about nonselective remembering.

Last revised: June 23, 2007
(c)2007 Dave Spicer
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