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Why We Can’t Remember

I'm living a wonderful life with her

This article is dedicated to my sweetheart.
I and my girlfriend often get indulged in extreme dual fights on several topics. I won’t lie, I have started loving it.

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Today, we argued over an interesting issue. My girlfriend has been recently watching a Web series named ‘Money Heist‘ claiming that she has never heard the name before from my mouth.


I differed.


I’ve completed watching this series a few years back.

Most importantly, I remember telling her about the tv series before.

But unfortunately, she doesn’t remember a dime.

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However, we indeed have a pretty strong relationship. Before judging her too quickly, we have to understand the science of remembering things.

How Does Memory Work?

Human memory works on some core principles. Brain consciously and continuously decides what information we have to capture for future usage and what we need to forget.

The brain is wired from ancient times to focus on the most important things around us. From the ancient cave-days of our ancestors, the human race has avoided extinction by optimizing the limited available resources. Imagine a cave couple in African Savana, who is preparing for the upcoming winter. Obviously, they have to focus on winter clothing, food reserve, sufficient fat for several months, arrangements for fire, and so forth. Keeping everything organized in such challenging situations is quite overwhelming. Hence, evolution has forced the human brain to form a priority checklist so that we can decide which information we absorb and which one gets erased.

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But wait a minute, why can’t the brain remember and store every bit of information?

Because the brain consumes a significant amount of energy (or ATP) to process/ remember any information, and energy is limited of course. Animal brains consist of millions of neurons that require oxygen and glucose for transferring information. We don’t have a renewable energy reservoir fit on the brain.

Let me give you an easy analogy for comparison. Suppose you have a thousand dollars to spend on your utility bills, food, house rental, entertainment, traveling, and children’s tuition. Obviously, you will allocate wisely where to spend your hard-earned money, and even sacrifice two/ three items if the money falls short. Perhaps this month’s Maldives trip can wait for the next month, but your children’s tuition fees can’t.

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Usually, we remember the things most that interest our curiosities. If I interpolate my concept to my girlfriend’s case, she simply didn’t resonate with my Money Heist mania two years back. But now since she has started using Netflix, watching this web series is making sense to her.

I suggest everybody not to blame others for forgetting any information. Forgetting is natural, and the human race has made so far by choosing the necessary data to remember. Paying attention is the most essential mental resource for every living organism. Millions of neurons need to get involved in the process of attentive mindfulness. If someone chooses to use that mental resource wisely, I would rather congratulate her for being rational.

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But I admit, forgetting everything sucks. We should try to pick up important information and store those with neural monitoring. Memory boosting practice may help people with incessant memory loss. But that’s a topic of another discussion.

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Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh

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