Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

Touching Time: Stones, Wood, and the Enduring Power of Intention

2025-09-21

The author's experiences living in Rome and Japan led him on a quest to understand what evokes a feeling of connection across time. Initially, he believed it was ancient stone structures, like Roman ruins. However, in Japan, he discovered that even repeatedly rebuilt wooden buildings, like Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion), could inspire the same feeling. Ultimately, he realized it wasn't the materials themselves, but the enduring intention, tradition, and continued practice behind the structures—like the centuries-old fire watch patrol in a Tokyo neighborhood—that forms the crucial link to the past.

Kanji Amnesia: Why I Remember the Meaning But Not the Writing

2025-08-15

The author mastered kanji by first learning their meanings and writing, then pronunciation. Years later, he can't handwrite most kanji. This 'Kanji Amnesia' is common in Japan and China. He explores the brain's separate processes for reading and writing, and his aphantasia (lack of mental imagery) adds to the mystery. Cognitive science suggests this stems from the brain's use of both verbatim and gist memory traces. Reading involves recognizing the gist, while writing activates motor memory of strokes – two distinct skills.

Missing Memories: A Blogger with Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM) Speaks Out

2025-06-06

Blogger Marco Giancotti shares his experience living with Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM). SDAM is a rare memory disorder characterized by an inability to recall specific past events; memories feel like a 'file cabinet without labels'. While his semantic and spatial memory are intact, recalling specific episodes is incredibly difficult, linked to his concurrent aphantasia. He uses personal anecdotes to illustrate how SDAM affects his life and how he compensates using spatial and semantic memory. Although SDAM causes emotional distress, he finds advantages, such as increased focus on the present and enhanced rational thinking.