The Eddie Stobart Principle

I can remember every single lorry that I've ever seen on the motorway.

Quite a claim, isn't it? You're probably thinking, now how is Mike going to back this one up? Or is he just going to ply me with a load of old drivel? Well, read on and be amazed.

Eddie Stobart is a major road haulage company in the UK. I know this because of the number of Eddie Stobart lorries I see when driving on the motorway. In fact the only reason I know this is because of the number of Eddie Stobart lorries I see on the motorway. But how do I know that I've seen a lot of Eddie Stobart lorries? I only ever see them one at a time, "Oo, look! Another Eddie Stobart lorry."

Consider what is involved in seeing the second Eddie Stobart lorry you've ever seen. In order to notice that this is "another" Eddie Stobart lorry, you must have remembered the first one. If you didn't, then when you see your third lorry or your fourth lorry or your six hundred and forty ninth lorry, it may as well have been your first in that you will not recall the previous lorries and so you will not identify it as "another" Eddie Stobart lorry.

Consequently you have a memory of the very first Eddie Stobart lorry that you ever saw, which means that you have a memory of EVERY lorry that you ever saw. The fact that you don't notice Arnie Spigot lorries is because you haven't seen them frequently enough for them to make it into your conscious memory, but if you have ever seen an Arnie Spigot lorry then it will be there in your subconcious memory.

Each time you see a new type of lorry it is stored in some remote branch of your deep memory. But the more times you see that lorry, the further up your memory it is stored and the more retrievable it is made to your conscious processes. However, for this memory to be re-inforced in this manner, a subconscious process must be able to access the very first remotely-held memory, otherwise your second sighting of the lorry would not move up into easier-to-recall memory, nor would any subsequent sighting.

Notice that I have switched to the second person because I am not just claiming that I have remembered every single lorry I've ever seen on the motorway but that you have too. In fact I am claiming rather more than that.

The Eddie Stobart Principle is more than just observing lorries on the motorways. It states that everything you ever see in your life remains in your memory.

Your conscious thoughts do not access most of your memory - they can't otherwise your head would be a babble of everything you've ever witnessed. But your subconcious thoughts access this memory all the time. Every time you see something your subconciousness scans your memory to see if you've encountered it before and if you have, that memory gets re-inforced and if it's important enough or has been reinforced enough times it makes its way up into conscious-accessible memory and you think, "There's another Eddie Stobart lorry".

Human memory is not like computer memory that once you've crammed every last megabyte into it you need to stick in another memory card or you're stuck. Human memory is infinitely large. If you're not prepared to accept that, because there can only be a finite number of neurons in a brain, then accept that it is extremely large. It is so large that no one has ever been able to fill one up.

And it's got a lot of lorries in it.

Mike's Spot

• Global Investment Banks
• Conspiracy Theories
• The United States Of What?
• Planefall
• Second Place
• The Last Place You Look
• Regional Accents
• With Jesus On Your Side
• The Fiscal Theory Of Relativity
• The Eddie Stobart Principle
• Human Ruminants
• The Myth Of Lesbianism
• Pooclub - The Ultimate Truth

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