Statistics and you!

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa 3/30 near Recolle

Let me ask a question that is the reverse of one that, I believe Dave was asking before. Who has access to this site but has not seen any strange memories? A lot of people have mentioned the phenomenon of memories that have been recalled, but don't seem to fit with the rest of your life, or what you remember. I still love the term 'hallucinomemories.' But it can't be all of us, statistically. A related but different question, every time we talk about this, I have to bring up that I'm not an expert in memory. So do we have anybody on this site who is? Psychologists, researchers, somebody who worked in a memory lab during grad school? I'll take anything.

Comments

[notyourutopian]

Eleanor Lamb It's just you.

[Yes she might be trolling him a bit.]

[standalonehuman]

[Togusa is firmly pointing his finger at his screen even though she can't see it. Principle.]

Hitori Togusa Numbers are on my side here. My count is off, but there aren't more than 160 of us. There's got to be more.

[notyourutopian]

Eleanor Lamb People who aren't on the network don't count.

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa Ouch. I'm wounded over here.
Hitori Togusa All right, I'll humor you. Say I am the statistical outlier, what do I do then?

[notyourutopian]

Eleanor Lamb No idea.
Eleanor Lamb What do statistical outliers normally do?

[professahhh]

Did you know that a certain type of flatworm can retain memories, even if you chop its head off and let it regrow a new one?

[standalonehuman]

[What do you even say in response to that?]

I did not know that.

I learned something today.

But it brings up so many more questions.

[professahhh]

Odd, isn't it? Even with all we know about the human brain today, even the smallest of organisms can present all kinds of mysteries.

[standalonehuman]

You're right. It's amazing that we still have so much to learn. It would be pretty boring if everybody knew everything.

...

But really, dont flatworms grow back both ways? So if you split it, do you get two? Would both the flatworms have the memories? Does that count as cloning? Like I said, so many more questions.

[professahhh]

Speaking of which, here's another one!

If applied to the human brain, magnetic pulses can have all kinds of effects! For example, they can render you unable to speak... or boost your memory.

[blooming_resonance]

In short: Yes and yes.

Though to be most precise, it is not me who specializes in psychology, but my family who owns a neurological practice here in town. Most of what I know is from growing up with it.

I wish I could say I have experienced any of these... hallucinations, however. Not a one has come to me, when it sounds like others have experienced dozens.

[standalonehuman]

[Aha! Take that, Eleanor!]

Hitori Tougsa Maybe not dozens. If you total everyone up, sure.
Hitori Togusa From what people have said, some have just been triggered thanks to normal conversation, while others just come to them without a stimulus. Seems a lot like normal memory, in that way, from what I understand of it.
Hitori Togusa They only stand out because what they're seeing doesn't mesh with everything else they know.

[blooming_resonance]

Yes, that's what they've told me, as well. I almost feel a little left out, not having any of these strange hallucinations. Maybe I'm like a control in the experiment?

Sad as it is to think this whole thing may be some kind of social experiment.

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa Oh, it's definitely a social experiment. Unquestionably.
Hitori Togusa But it's interesting to see someone else who might be in the control population.
Hitori Togusa But only 2 out of ~160? I would have thought they'd just compare us to the unaffected population.
Hitori Togusa But, I suppose, everyone who isn't on the app, they aren't collecting data from. Hunh.

[blooming_resonance]

I think so. Though you're right that they should take a larger control population - I suppose unless anyone else has said they're part of it since I said anything here.

It seems to be that way, either way. Or they've got the entire city in on the little joke somehow. Wasn't there a movie about that?

[parodeity]

oh hey a namedrop ive hit the bigtime now
obviously i am not useful for this stats thing as a person with
a metric fuckton of hallucinomemories
but i feel like i should definitely swing by given the namedrop
you know
let my adoring public know i appreciate them
i appreciate you togusa

[standalonehuman]

Aww, I feel the love.

But that's right, you won one. Retrospec was offering out what seemed to be these memories as the prize in that pageant. We couldn't figure out how that was even possible.

Can you even tell if it kicked in or not?

[parodeity]

nah wrong strider
youd have to ask my bro about that
it was dirk who won not me
i actually didnt ask him because i was giving him the silent treatment but
i should do that oops

thiiiis is what happens when I don't go here oops

[standalonehuman]

There are two of you? [Delete delete.]

Sorry about that, then. Not my place to ask about somebody I don't even know. But.

I know we're all worried. Maybe me more so than people who have experienced these memories.

[longwei2go]

saw this at work
was gonna say not it
but then i took a nap that was too real
but it was also the most BADASS dream ive ever had
if that was supposed to be fake it for sure knew how to hit my buttons

[standalonehuman]

Ah, maybe that's the secret, then.

Dear Hitori, stop working such long hours and get a sane amount of sleep and then you can....go crazy like everybody else.

Unrelated question, how true to life do you think The Machinist was?

[obscultator]

Karl Bergfried I have not experienced these phenomena as yet, no.
Karl Bergfried Nor have I recieved any unexplained packages, incidentally.

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa I suppose it's comforting that we're not alone?

[Nyeah-nyeah, Eleanor.]

Hitori Togusa Maybe someone I was talking to was right, then, and there is a control group within the sample that Retrospec took? We're not only being compared to everyone outside the platform?

[obscultator]

Karl Bergfried For a certain definition of "comforting," I suppose.
Karl Bergfried That is a very interesting thought, though.
Karl Bergfried So you think we may be, quite literally, part of a social experiment?

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa If there is some intentionality behind what they're doing? Then yes.
Hitori Togusa It feels just barely organized enough to have a scientific structure to it, but just barely not organized enough that the people running the experiment are not good at their jobs.