Ask HN: Has there been any developments in photographic/eidetic memory research?

3 points

3 years ago

Last night I read about Ferdinand Waldo Demara, a imposter who performed multiple complex and successful surgeries aboard a Canadian Navy vessel despite never having trained as a surgery. He claims he was able to do this due to having a photographic memory - whilst the nurses were prepping the patients for surgery he skimmed through a surgery book and then was able to perform the surgery by following along the pages in his memory.

It appears that lots of our current tools attempt to be memory aids to some extent such as reminders, calendars, and zettelkasten note taking systems. I was wondering if anyone knew much about the general state of affairs of memory research in general. It seems like if we could unlock this ability in everyone it would be an enormous evolutionary leap for the species probably leading to breakthroughs in every field.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Waldo_Demara

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidetic_memory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_possess_an_eidetic_memory