SuperMemo: Scheduled Reviews of Material Profoundly Improves Memory
April 22nd, 2008The story about the memory tool is fascinating, but I became even more interested in how the man behind the software turned his life into what seems to me like a sort of cybernetic hell. The Machine is funny that way. It has a tendency to take over, the extent that a person (or organization or state) is open to being possessed by it.
Via: Wired:
SuperMemo is based on the insight that there is an ideal moment to practice what you’ve learned. Practice too soon and you waste your time. Practice too late and you’ve forgotten the material and have to relearn it. The right time to practice is just at the moment you’re about to forget. Unfortunately, this moment is different for every person and each bit of information. Imagine a pile of thousands of flash cards. Somewhere in this pile are the ones you should be practicing right now. Which are they?
Fortunately, human forgetting follows a pattern. We forget exponentially. A graph of our likelihood of getting the correct answer on a quiz sweeps quickly downward over time and then levels off. This pattern has long been known to cognitive psychology, but it has been difficult to put to practical use. It’s too complex for us to employ with our naked brains.
“One of his most heartfelt wishes is that the world have one language and one currency so this could all be handled more efficiently. He’s appalled that Poland is still not in the Eurozone.”
I thought that was interesting, though not nessecarily pejorative, perhaps misguided.
You could describe the program he developed and the resultant state of mind as a weak form of transhumanism.
“…a weak form of transhumanism.”
Yep, like I said, “cybernetic hell.”