Back when I first got a cellphone and slowly started forgetting phone numbers I remember thinking "OK that is scary, it really didn't take long for me to forget something that used to be second nature for me"

[thundalarchsys@mastodon.social]

@henstridge @beach @tykling

Using a phone number for things like shopping rewards and versions of it for passwords brought this ability back for me, so it's definitely something that can be revived.

Entering a polycule member's phone# twice a month for his employee discount made it second nature in a couple of months.

[nini@oldbytes.space]

@tykling I've never been great at remembering phone numbers but that's why you had phone books of the personal sort, write them down and you'd at least have it documented as a reference. All that's happened between the number being a number and not just a name is an abstraction of data, the number is still there to be seen if you needed it but you're more apt to remember a word over a string of 8 to 12 digits and you're not going to be poking those numbers in just to retain that "poking in remembered numbers" skill, it's not that special a skill.

That might read as anti-memory but it's not, now you can't retrieve the number at all even if you wanted it! The phone is doing a collect call to figure out the number from an automated service then connecting you to the real number that it won't tell you because it didn't retain that info.

[aoi_x_kaizaki@mastodon.social]

@tykling It takes me a while to forget lots of things. My mind is too powerful for the human species. However, I did have three phones currently, but only the same number.
Now, I got a new phone (number 4) and this time a new number.

[krahabors@toot.lv]

@tykling I'm pretty sure in some situations, like in Ukraine, people very quickly relearned these skills, as well as some others.
I'm somewhat afraid of situation when my phone dies and I also have no access to computer or internet for some reason - even another phone might not help here!

[bedifferent@mastodon.social]

@tykling It's why I turn off auto anything (search). I have maybe two contacts in email and added another this weekend.
The rest, I remember or I ask someone for it again.

It's not just ai that will make us brainless, it's allowing crap to take over for us which is another goal - turn us into a non-thinking society. So no or very few: contacts addrs, few phone #s, a.i. which is not ready for any real use, search assist, spellcheck and probably more.

[aedius@lavraievie.social]

@tykling

That's why while Claude is generating bad cod for my boss I'm still coding good code for personnal projects ^^

[jasper@mastodon.nl]

@tykling wish Signal would add a feature where you have to push the numbers to select a contact.
(you do get to see matching results but you can disable making them clickable)

[savvyhomestead@mastodon.social]

@henstridge @tykling

Information overload. Telephone, SSI, birthdays, anniversaries, drivers license, trash day, feed the dog, doctor's appointments, passwords, combination lock numbers, pay bill dates......the list goes on and on.

[sophie_talks@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@tykling Wonder how long it would actually take to rebuild that kind of memory once it's gone. Like is it faster the second time or does it start from zero?

[rvlara23@mastodon.social]

@tykling

A million percent.

[guillotine_jones@beige.party]

@tykling
I, for one, predict that the price of human skill erosion will actually exceed the cost of Ai implementation.
Prove me wrong.

[chrisp@cyberplace.social]

@Aedius @tykling "Oh no, the AI wrote slop! I guess you'll have to pay me 1.5x my regular salary to fix it or I'll go find another job"

[aedius@lavraievie.social]

@chrisp @tykling

That's the plan !

[wademcgillis@mastodon.social]

@tykling my coworkers think i'm crazy for not having any contacts in my phone. everyone is just numbers.

[justinderrick@mstdn.ca]

@tykling When I was a kid, I had everyone’s phone numbers memorized…. Now, I’m not so old that it was only 4 digits or something like that…. But there were only 5 exchanges (579 728 571 723 404) so it was kinda like only having to remember four digits.

F**k…. I AM old.

Also, I write my own code & regex.

[failedlyndonlarouchite@mas.to]

@tykling

[ circa 1,000 BC ]
back when I got a stylus and papyrus, I slowly started forgetting how to memorize things

etc etc x1,000

There is a British philosopher, G Moore, iirc, who said something like

Progess is letting us forget things

and that is one of those simple statements that is truly profound

[kneoghau@mastodon.social]

@tykling as someone old enough to remember the "corded family phone" with no quick dial features, I'm still able to call everyone I need to, and store details of (nearly infinite) contacts I might want/need to reconnect with some day. It's just easier 99.9% of the time. This is post is also about vibe coding.

[toldtheworld@mastodon.social]

@tykling I used my partner's number as the unlock code for a tablet my children used for entertainment, so they would memorize it. It worked anyway, this is applicable to any skill: create opportunities to use it. Also, people used to recall entire epics with minimal fidelity loss before there was writing, I hear, so they would find our ability to recall a few numbers rather unimpressive.

[kalleboo@bitbang.social]

@tykling I remember my childhood home phone number and my first mobile number in 2003 but I don’t know my wife of 10 years phone number

[argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org]

@sophie_talks

Refreshing an existing but faded memory or skill is faster than learning a new one, yes.

For example, I recently played a video game I hadn't played in over a decade, which has very unusual and difficult controls. I was rusty at first, but my old skills came rushing back pretty fast. It took me far longer to learn the game as a kid than to recall it as an adult.

Unfortunately it's also very hard on my elbows now. Adult bodies are so fragile!

@tykling