On Tue, 7 Sep 1999, Joseph Sterlynne wrote:
>
> But would not, for example, total recall of long-term memories or total
> access to nonconscious processes be a useful ability? Is our (and
> apparently other organisms') lack of such due to the basic architecture
> of mind or to the vicissitudes of evolution?
The architectures that were incorporated were those essential for survival. If while you were contemplating a slight restriction in your left aorta or replaying the time you lost your virginity, a lion decided to have you for lunch, that extra information would be a survival disadvantage.
Now that we are almost in the trans-survival era, this information may be of interest to us. For example, it would be great to have dynamic feedback on the cell division rate in your body -- one level is normal, a higher level indicates possible cancer developing.
> In such a case we might be able to access a small section of this
> unconscious data (instead of everything at once)---but we can't.
Nanomedicine discusses the data management requirements fairly extensively. They are huge. Some of the first people who are going to have to learn to drink from the tidal wave are the physicians who are going to have to deal with the data reports on your 30+ trillion cells.
Robert