Elsa, Week 13 - Faulty Memories
A few weeks ago, my friend came across a recent physics article talking about a novel discovery in quantum particles. I don’t exactly remember what this paper was describing, but through my friend’s explanation, I was able to learn that even if time travel were possible, physicists believe that it would be difficult to actually determine if it happened since it wouldn’t be able to change the past. Essentially, this article was able to prove the idea that the present timeline can only be temporarily changed by going back to the past, supporting a famous theory proposed in 1990 describing how events will always be self-consistent and how actions will already have been accounted for in the past.
And although this topic was interesting in itself, what really struck me was when my friend connected this idea to our feeling of déjà vu, proposing the theory that this feeling may be caused by us “forgetting” an experience after our timeline has been altered, yet still retaining the feelings and sense of familiarity we have with this situation when it occurs again.
An image representing the déjà vu phenomenom.
Credit: Medical News Today
Now, this idea probably sounds extremely stupid. And I agree–it’s difficult for us to imagine the thought of time travelers directly causing us to lose our memories of the interactions we have with them. But hearing about my friend’s ridiculous theory also made me reflect on the idea of déjà vu itself and realize just how faulty our memories are.
I’m sure all of us have experienced déjà vu at some point in our lives, where our feeling of familiarity with a place that we’ve never experienced before may seem strange and uncanny, especially given the fact that we’ve never been aware of this situation until we actually experience it for the first time. But it’s really odd to think about how most of our population has experienced this exact same feeling, where we all seem to have gaps in our memories.
Hey Elsa, this blog proposed an extremely thoughtful and intriguing concept that I had never considered before. It seems plausible that the feeling of déjà vu is because of supernatural time travel, which demonstrates how well-established scientific concepts still leave a lot of room for interpretation. Though it sounds far-fetched, it just proves how little we know about the human brain relative to other spheres of science. Our brains are fascinating, but without the right technology, we will not be able to understand their true inner workings.
ReplyDeleteThe concept you proposed reminded me of Neurolink, Elon Musk’s company for making brain chip implants. I imagined that the Neurolink chip could fabricate feelings of déjà vu on command, which proposes a different angle on the phenomenon. This post was extremely interesting and provoked a lot of thoughts. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Elsa, I really did not know about this theory that you brought up. After searching it up and learning about it, this is actually a really interesting theory that honestly seems very unbelievable in a sense. Do you personally think things like time travelling is possible? Although it seems like another realm, it might also be the fact of the human brain, how limited or how wide our imagination is. Are we truly just thinking of these things out of our figments of imagination or are we limited by it? Where there are so many things in the universe that we don’t even think about or can encapsulate in our minds.
ReplyDeleteDéjà vu also seems like such an unreal thing. Contrasting to my family who never get it, I get it very frequently and yet, I still can’t seem to get used to the eerie and tingling feeling every time I get it. I read a theory somewhere (probably TikTok) that people who get déjà vu are people who are living the same life again, and are experiencing it again, and so they get flashbacks of their previous lives while people who never get déjà vu are living their lives for the first time. This concept ties in with the idea and belief that reincarnation exists to some extent. Similarly, another theory is that people who get it are living their last life and people who don't are living their first. Regardless of if you believe in reincarnation, do you think these type of theories might exist?
Overall, this was a really cool blog that brought up thoughts that I might not have thought about originally. It was also really interesting how in our current society, many of these things remain unexplained, and that this tupe of work and research still have such a long way to go. Thanks for writing!
Hello Elsa! Your Blog was really interesting and extremely cool as well. The concept of déjà vu is something that has always intrigued me too. There have been countless instances where I have been in a particular area and just felt like some event in the present has happened in the past before. One specific moment that happened recently is when I was conversing with my friends about Stephen Curry's most recent injury, and I felt the overall impact of déjà vu. I think it is because Stephen Curry had gotten the same injury two years ago, so I must have been having a really similar conversation in the past as well. Also, I find it quite fascinating how the brain functions too, and that there are so many processes that happen in our mind that contribute to how we as humans experience everyday life.
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