# Remembrancy

Can't remember how you wound up discussing why Ice Cream machines in McDonald's are perennially broken? Skill issue. No, I'm not talking about memorization. That's a separate, but related skill. Nah, I'm talking about trawling for existing memories through the murky depths of your unconscious. The novel Neverness calls this skill "Remembrancy". 

Now, I'm not a remembrancer. Never joined the order, never taken part of the sacraments, never skated through Neverness' light-stroked streets. But I have acquired some rudimentary skill at this noble art. And I'm willing to share, if you'll share a skill in turn. OK?

Good. 

How about we start out with an example of ol' Algon remembrancing something? Better than half-baked theory, don't you think? Alright? Alright.[^g9dkns33adc]

> I was just trying to remember an example of remembrancy to get you going. I had written "My friend and I were having a conversation. Somehow, we wound up on the topic of H-something." I didn't know what the "H-something" was. It was bugging me that I didn't know. Attending to that thought about "H-something", another thought bubbled up: "the forbidden topic". I continued to focus. From there, "that thing Zach M Davis has" bubbled up. And then "the thing that \[some\]  trans people really are, \[like Zach M Davis\]". That was too vague. Unsatisfied, I was going to use Google to find the term. But then I realized that this was an opportunity to use remembrancy, and get a fresh example to write about. I chose to remember. So, I focused on that bugging feeling. I waited for what would bubble up from this feeling I had about "the thing that \[some\] trans people really are". The next thought came: "Blanchardiasm". I wrote that down. It was pretty close to what I wanted. But it didn't exactly match the feeling I had. So I held that mismatch in my mind for a few seconds, and up came "autogenphylia". Aha! That was it. 

Couldn't have been more than 30 seconds. Probably more like 15, but I can't be asked to remember. 

But a couple of things stand out, eh? For one, there was a lot of waiting. For another, there was a lot of focusing. And right enough, you need to be a fair hand at focusing to remembrance. Least, I do. 

See how I started out with "H-something" and wound up at "autogenphylia"? Where's the sense in that? I don't rightly know, but I'd have been a fool if I stuck to thinking the word I sought had to start with an "H". The H was just a word, a symbol I put to the feeling I had. The feeling was the important thing, and it led me to more scraps of imagery, more feelings fleshing out the original, till I had enough bits to zero in on what I wanted. So you can't force yourself to remember a thought. 

That don't mean you can't speed it up. The basic idea is to figure out the likely context of the memory. What were you thinking of at the time? What did you see, smell, taste, touch, hear? Where you, when where you? 

Partly, you get bits o' context by focusing on 'em. Partly, you get 'em by guessing. Either works. And when it comes to when, a bit of binary search can help nail things down. 

Now, you might ask "why oh why would I ever bother with all this crud? Can't I just memorize it all?" Well, for some things, sure. Especially if y'will [^wj3lpmfa9i9]spend more 'an 5 minutes of yer life trying to remember it or look it up. 

But a lot of thoughts worth remembering ain't like that. A chain of thought, sure ain't. And that's where, in my humble view, remembrancy shines. You think more than 5 thoughts a second, or at least sensations, but I admit you forget most of 'em. But with remembrancy you can. 

Why oh why would you bother? Cause how else are you going to learn at the five-second level but by looking at what you thought moment by moment to see how you could be less wrong? I sure as heck don't know. 

Now, I admit it can take a pretty minute to call to mind 30 whole seconds of thought. Sometimes, 5 minutes o thought can take hours to remembrance. But at that level of detail, it's a darn sight easier to see how and why your thoughts got tangled up. 

Old Yudkowsky claims he can see and fix his thoughts at that level in 30 seconds flat. What with everything being a skill issue and all, I'm disinclined to say that ain't possible just because I can't see how to do it yet. But there ain't no reason to my mind why y'can't be so quick to remember what you thought. 

Well, any ideas? 

[^g9dkns33adc]: No remembrancy needed, just good old note-taking.  

[^wj3lpmfa9i9]: No, I don't know why I'm affecting an accent in this piece. No, it doesn't fit the style I started with. No, I won't stop.