Feats of memory anyone can do | Joshua Foer

Translator: David J. Kreps Finnemann Reviewer: Troels Larsen

Jeg vil gerne bede Jer om at lukke jeres øjne.

I'd like to invite you to close your eyes.

Forestil Jer, at I står

Imagine yourself standing outside the front door of your home.

ude foran døren til Jeres hus.

Jeg vil gerne bede Jer om at lægge mærke til dørens farve,

I'd like you to notice the color of the door,

the material that it's made out of.

materialet den er lavet af.

Now visualize a pack of overweight nudists on bicycles.

Forestil Jer nu en flok overvægtige nudister på cykler.

(Laughter)

De konkurrerer i et nøgen cykelløb

They are competing in a naked bicycle race,

og de er på vej lige til din hoveddør.

and they are headed straight for your front door.

I need you to actually see this.

Jeg har brug for at I kan se dette.

They are pedaling really hard, they're sweaty,

De træder hårdt i pedalerne, de sveder,

de hopper og og ned.

they're bouncing around a lot.

Og de styrter lige ind i fordøren til Jeres hus.

And they crash straight into the front door of your home.

Cykler flyver ud over det hele, hjulene ruller forbi dig,

Bicycles fly everywhere, wheels roll past you,

eger lander uheldige steder.

spokes end up in awkward places.

Step over the threshold of your door into your foyer, your hallway,

Gå over dørtærsklen til din dør

ind i din forhal, din entré, hvad end der er på den anden side,

whatever's on the other side,

and appreciate the quality of the light.

og værdsæt lyskvaliteten.

The light is shining down on Cookie Monster.

Lyset skinner ned på Cookie Monster.

Cookie Monster vinker til dig

Cookie Monster is waving at you from his perch on top of a tan horse.

fra sin plads på toppen af en mørk hest.

It's a talking horse.

Det er en talende hest.

You can practically feel his blue fur tickling your nose.

Man kan næsten mærke hans blå pels der kilder ens næse.

You can smell the oatmeal raisin cookie that he's about to shovel into his mouth.

Man kan dufte havregrynskagerne med rosin, som han skal til at skovle i munden.

Walk past him.

Gå forbi ham. Gå forbi ham ind i din stue.

Walk past him into your living room.

In your living room, in full imaginative broadband,

I din stue, i fuld fantasirig figur,

picture Britney Spears.

forestil dig Britney Spears.

She is scantily clad, she's dancing on your coffee table,

Hun er meget let påklædt, hun danser på dit kaffebord,

and she's singing "Hit Me Baby One More Time."

og hun synger "Hit Me Baby One More Time".

And then, follow me into your kitchen.

Og følg så efter mig ind i dit køkken.

I dit køkken, er gulvet brolagt med gule brosten,

In your kitchen, the floor has been paved over with a yellow brick road,

and out of your oven are coming towards you Dorothy, the Tin Man,

og imod dig ud af ovnen kommer

Dorothy, Blikmanden,

the Scarecrow and the Lion from "The Wizard of Oz,"

Fugleskræmslet og Løven fra "Troldmanden fra Oz",

hand-in-hand, skipping straight towards you.

hånd i hånd, sjippende direkte hen imod dig.

Okay. Open your eyes.

Okay. Åben øjnene.

Jeg vil fortælle Jer om en meget bizar konkurrence

I want to tell you about a very bizarre contest

that is held every spring in New York City.

der bliver afholdt hvert forår i New York City.

It's called the United States Memory Championship.

Det hedder United States Memory Championship.

And I had gone to cover this contest a few years back

Og jeg var taget afsted for at dække denne konkurrence for et par år siden,

as a science journalist,

som videnskabsjournalist

expecting, I guess, that this was going to be like the Superbowl of savants.

og forventede, tror jeg, at det ville blive

ligesom Superbowl for nørder.

Dette var en bunke fyre og et par damer,

This was a bunch of guys and a few ladies,

widely varying in both age and hygienic upkeep.

med stor forskel i både alder og hygiejnisk tilstand.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

De lærte hundredevis af tilfældige numre udenad,

They were memorizing hundreds of random numbers,

looking at them just once.

bare ved at kigge på dem én gang.

They were memorizing the names of dozens and dozens and dozens of strangers.

De lærte navnene på dusinvis og dusinvis og dusinvis af fremmede mennesker udenad.

De lærte hele digte udenad, i løbet af ganske få minutter.

They were memorizing entire poems in just a few minutes.

De konkurrerede om hvem der hurtigst kunne lære

They were competing to see who could memorize

the order of a shuffled pack of playing cards the fastest.

rækkefølgen på et blandet spil kort udenad.

I was like, this is unbelievable.

Jeg tænkte, det her er utroligt.

Disse mennesker må være et af naturens luner.

These people must be freaks of nature.

And I started talking to a few of the competitors.

Og jeg begyndte at snakke med et par af deltagerne.

This is a guy called Ed Cook, who had come over from England,

Det her er en fyr der hedder Ed Cook

der var kommet herover fra England

where he had one of the best-trained memories.

hvor han havde en af de bedst trænede hukommelser.

Og jeg sagde til ham, "Ed, hvornår gik det op for dig,

And I said to him, "Ed, when did you realize

that you were a savant?"

at du er en savant?"

Og Ed sagde, "Jeg er ikke en savant.

And Ed was like, "I'm not a savant.

In fact, I have just an average memory.

Faktisk, har jeg en ganske gennemsnitlig hukommelse.

Everybody who competes in this contest will tell you

Alle der deltager i denne konkurrence

vil fortælle dig at de har en gennemsnitlig hukommelse.

that they have just an average memory.

We've all trained ourselves to perform these utterly miraculous feats of memory

Vi har alle trænet os selv

til at udføre disse komplet mirakuløse hukommelsesbedrifter

using a set of ancient techniques,

ved at bruge en mængde gamle teknikker,

techniques invented 2,500 years ago in Greece,

teknikker opfundet for 2.500 år siden i Grækenland,

the same techniques that Cicero had used to memorize his speeches,

de samme teknikker Cicero brugte

til at lære sine taler udenad,

that medieval scholars had used to memorize entire books."

som lærde i middelalderen brugte til at lære hele bøger udenad."

Og jeg tænkte, "Whoa. Hvordan kan det være,at jeg ikke har hørt om det her før?"

And I said, "Whoa. How come I never heard of this before?"

Og vi stod uden for hallen hvor konkurrencen foregik,

And we were standing outside the competition hall,

and Ed, who is a wonderful, brilliant, but somewhat eccentric English guy,

og Ed, der er en vidunderlig, genial,

men en smule excentrisk engelsk fyr,

says to me, "Josh, you're an American journalist.

sagde til mig, "Josh, du er en amerikansk journalist.

Do you know Britney Spears?"

Kender du Britney Spears?"

Jeg sagde, "Hvad? Nej. Hvorfor?"

I'm like, "What? No. Why?"

"Fordi jeg kunne rigtig godt tænkte mig at lære Britney Spears

"Because I really want to teach Britney Spears

how to memorize the order of a shuffled pack of playing cards

hvordan man lærer rækkefølgen på et kortspil udenad

on U.S. national television.

på amerikansk tv.

It will prove to the world that anybody can do this."

Det vil bevise for verden, at alle kan gøre dette".

(Laughter)

(Latter)

I was like, "Well, I'm not Britney Spears,

Jeg sagde, "Tja, Jeg er ikke Britney Spears,

men måske kan du lære mig det.

but maybe you could teach me.

I mean, you've got to start somewhere, right?"

Jeg mener, man skal starte et sted, ikke?"

Og det var begyndelsen på en meget underlig rejse for mig.

And that was the beginning of a very strange journey for me.

Og jeg endte med at bruge størstedelen af det efterfølgende år

I ended up spending the better part of the next year

not only training my memory,

ikke kun på at træne min hukommelse,

but also investigating it,

men også på at undersøge den,

trying to understand how it works,

og prøve at forstå hvordan den fungerer,

why it sometimes doesn't work,

hvorfor den nogen gange ikke virker

and what its potential might be.

og hvad dens potentiale kunne være.

And I met a host of really interesting people.

Jeg mødte en masse meget interessante mennesker.

This is a guy called E.P.

Det her er en fyr der hedder E.P.

He's an amnesic who had, very possibly,

Han lider af hukommelsestab, og har muligvis

the worst memory in the world.

den allerdårligste hukommelse i verden.

His memory was so bad,

Han hukommelse var så dårlig

that he didn't even remember he had a memory problem,

at han ikke engang kunne huske, at han have et problem med hukommelsen

hvilket er utroligt.

which is amazing.

And he was this incredibly tragic figure,

Og han var denne utrolig tragiske skikkelse,

but he was a window into the extent to which our memories make us who we are.

men han var et vindue til det omfang

hvorpå vores hukommelse skaber den vi er.

Den anden ende af skalaen: jeg mødte denne fyr.

At the other end of the spectrum, I met this guy.

This is Kim Peek, he was the basis for Dustin Hoffman's character

Dette er Kim Peek.

Han dannede grundlaget for Dustin Hoffmans karakter i filmen "Rain Man".

in the movie "Rain Man."

Vi tilbragte en eftermiddag sammen

We spent an afternoon together in the Salt Lake City Public Library

i Salt Lake Citys bibliotek med at lære telefonbøger udenad,

memorizing phone books,

hvilket var glimrende.

which was scintillating.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

And I went back and I read a whole host of memory treatises,

Og jeg tog tilbage og læste en hel række afhandlinger om hukommelsen,

afhandlinger der var skrevet over 2.000 år siden

treatises written 2,000-plus years ago in Latin,

på latin i antikken

in antiquity, and then later, in the Middle Ages.

og så senere i Middelalderen.

And I learned a whole bunch of really interesting stuff.

Og jeg lærte en masse virkelig interessante ting.

One of the really interesting things that I learned

En af de virkelig interessante ting jeg lærte var

is that once upon a time,

at engang,

this idea of having a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory

var denne ide om at have en trænet, disciplineret, kultiveret hukommelse,

ikke nær så fjern som den er i dag.

was not nearly so alien as it would seem to us to be today.

Engang, investerede mennesker i deres hukommelse,

Once upon a time, people invested in their memories,

in laboriously furnishing their minds.

ved flittigt at udruste deres sind.

Over the last few millenia,

I løbet af de seneste årtusinder

we've invented a series of technologies --

har vi opfundet en række teknologier --

from the alphabet, to the scroll,

fra alfabetet til skriftrullen

to the codex, the printing press, photography,

til kodekset, til trykpressen, fotografering,

the computer, the smartphone --

computeren, smartphonen --

der har gjort det gradvist nemmere og nemmere

that have made it progressively easier and easier

for us to externalize our memories,

for os at eksternalisere vores hukommelse,

for us to essentially outsource this fundamental human capacity.

dybest set outsourcer vi

denne fundamentalt menneskelige evne.

These technologies have made our modern world possible,

Disse teknologier har muliggjort vores moderne verden,

men de har også forandret os.

but they've also changed us.

De har ændret os kulturelt,

They've changed us culturally,

og jeg vil argumentere for, at de har ændret os kognitivt.

and I would argue that they've changed us cognitively.

Having little need to remember anymore,

Fordi der efterhånden er mindre behov for at huske,

it sometimes seems like we've forgotten how.

virker der nogen gange som om vi har glemt hvordan man gør.

One of the last places on Earth where you still find

Et af de sidste steder i verden

hvor man stadig kan finde mennesker der er passionerede omkring denne ide

people passionate about this idea of a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory,

om en trænet, disciplineret, kultiveret hukommelse

is at this totally singular memory contest.

er ved denne helt enestående hukommelseskonkurrence.

It's actually not that singular,

Den er faktisk ikke så enestående,

der bliver afholdt konkurrencer i hele verden.

there are contests held all over the world.

And I was fascinated, I wanted to know how do these guys do it.

Og jeg var fascineret, jeg ville vide hvordan disse gutter gør det.

For et par år siden, bragte en gruppe forskere fra University College London

A few years back a group of researchers at University College London

brought a bunch of memory champions into the lab.

en gruppe hukommelsesmestre ind i laboratoriet.

De ville gerne vide:

They wanted to know:

Do these guys have brains that are somehow structurally,

Har disse gutter en hjerne

der på en eller anden måde er strukturelt, anatomisk forskellig fra os andres?

anatomically different from the rest of ours?

The answer was no.

Svaret var nej.

Are they smarter than the rest of us?

Er de klogere end resten af os?

They gave them a bunch of cognitive tests, and the answer was: not really.

De gav dem en række kognitive tests,

og svaret var, ikke rigtigt.

There was, however, one really interesting and telling difference

Der var dog en rigtig interessant og informativ forskel

between the brains of the memory champions

mellem hjernen på hukommelsesmestrene

and the control subjects that they were comparing them to.

og kontrolpersonerne som de sammenlignede dem med.

When they put these guys in an fMRI machine,

Da de puttede disse gutter i fMRI maskinen,

skannede deres hjerner

scanned their brains while they were memorizing numbers

mens de lærte numre og menneskers ansigter, og billeder af sneflager udenad,

and people's faces and pictures of snowflakes,

they found that the memory champions were lighting up different parts of the brain

fandt de ud af at hukommelsesmestrene

lyste op på andre steder i hjernen

than everyone else.

end alle andre.

Of note, they were using, or they seemed to be using,

Særligt brugte de, eller virkede til at bruge,

a part of the brain that's involved in spatial memory and navigation.

en bestemt del af hjernen der bliver brugt til spatial hukommelse og navigation.

Why?

Hvorfor? Og er der noget vi andre kan lære af det?

And is there something that the rest of us can learn from this?

Sporten om konkurrerende hukommelse

The sport of competitive memorizing is driven by a kind of arms race where,

er drevet af en slags våbenkapløb

every year, somebody comes up with a new way to remember more stuff more quickly,

hvor en ny person hvert år finder på

en ny metode til at huske flere ting hurtigere,

and then the rest of the field has to play catch-up.

og så må resten af feltet lære at følge med.

Dette er min ven Ben Pridmore,

This is my friend Ben Pridmore,

tredobbelt hukommelses verdensmester.

three-time world memory champion.

På bordet foran ham

On his desk in front of him are 36 shuffled packs of playing cards

er der 36 sæt blandede kortspil

that he is about to try to memorize in one hour,

som han skal til at forsøge at huske udenad på en time

ved hjælp af den teknik han opfandt og som kun han har mestret.

using a technique that he invented and he alone has mastered.

He used a similar technique

Han brugte en lignende teknik

til at udenadslære den præcise rækkefølge

to memorize the precise order of 4,140 random binary digits

på 4.140 tilfælde binære tal

in half an hour.

på en halv time.

(Laughter)

Yeah.

Ja.

And while there are a whole host of ways

Og mens der er en hel stak forskellige måder

of remembering stuff in these competitions,

at huske ting på i disse konkurrencer,

everything, all of the techniques that are being used,

kan alt, alle teknikker der bliver brugt,

ultimately come down to a concept

i sidste ende koges ned til et koncept

that psychologists refer to as "elaborative encoding."

som psykologer refererer til som detaljeret kodning.

And it's well-illustrated by a nifty paradox

Og det illustreres godt ved hjælp af et smart lille paradoks

known as the Baker/baker paradox, which goes like this:

kendt som Bager / bager paradokset,

hvilket er dette:

If I tell two people to remember the same word,

Hvis jeg fortæller to mennesker at de skal huske det samme ord,

if I say to you,

hvis jeg siger til dig,

"Remember that there is a guy named Baker."

"Husk på at der er en fyr der hedder Bager."

That's his name.

Det er hans navn.

And I say to you, "Remember that there is a guy who is a baker."

Og jeg siger til dig, "Husk på at der er en fyr der er bager".

Okay?

And I come back to you at some point later on,

Og jeg kommer tilbage til jer på et senere tidspunkt,

and I say, "Do you remember that word that I told you a while back?

og jeg siger, "Kan I huske det ord

som jeg fortalte Jer for noget tid siden?

Do you remember what it was?"

Kan I huske hvad det var?"

The person who was told his name is Baker

Personen der fik at vide at hans navn var Bager

is less likely to remember the same word

har mindre sandsynlighed for at huske det samme ord

than the person was told his job is a baker.

end personen der fik at vide at han er bager.

Samme ord, forskellig slags hukommelse; det er mærkeligt.

Same word, different amount of remembering; that's weird.

What's going on here?

Hvad sker der her?

Well, the name Baker doesn't actually mean anything to you.

Jo, navnet Bager betyder egentlig ikke rigtig noget for en.

It is entirely untethered from all of the other memories

Det er total afsondret

fra alle andre minder der flyder rundt i ens kranie.

floating around in your skull.

Men det almindelige navneord bager,

But the common noun "baker" -- we know bakers.

vi kender bagere.

Bakers wear funny white hats.

Bagere har mærkelige hvide hatte på.

Bakers have flour on their hands.

Bagere har mel på deres hænder.

Bakers smell good when they come home from work.

Bagere lugter godt når de kommer hjem fra arbejde.

Maybe we even know a baker.

Måske kender vi endda en bager.

And when we first hear that word,

Og da vi først hørte det ord,

begyndte vi at sætte en masse associerende kroge i det

we start putting these associational hooks into it,

that make it easier to fish it back out at some later date.

der gør det nemmere at fiske det tilbage på et senere tidspunkt.

Hele kunstarten af hvad der sker

The entire art of what is going on in these memory contests,

ved disse hukommelseskonkurrencer

and the entire art of remembering stuff better in everyday life,

og hele kunstarten med at huske ting bedre i hverdagen

er at finde ud af måder hvorpå man kan forandre stort B Bagere

is figuring out ways to transform capital B Bakers

til lille B bagere --

into lower-case B bakers --

at tage informationen der har mangler i kontekst,

to take information that is lacking in context,

in significance, in meaning,

i betydning, i mening

and transform it in some way,

og ændre det på en eller anden måde

so that it becomes meaningful in the light of all the other things

så det bliver betydningsfuldt

set i lyset af alle de andre ting man har i sindet.

that you have in your mind.

One of the more elaborate techniques for doing this

En af de mere indviklede teknikker til at gøre dette

er 2.500 år gammel og stammer fra oldtidens Grækenland.

dates back 2,500 years to Ancient Greece.

It came to be known as the memory palace.

Det blev kendt som hukommelses paladset.

Historien bag dens skabelse er denne:

The story behind its creation goes like this:

There was a poet called Simonides, who was attending a banquet.

Der var en poet der hed Simonides

der deltog ved en festmiddag.

Han var faktisk den hyrede underholdning,

He was actually the hired entertainment,

because back then, if you wanted to throw a really slamming party,

fordi hvis man dengang ville holde en virkelig fed fest,

you didn't hire a D.J., you hired a poet.

hyrede man ikke en D.J., man hyrede en poet.

And he stands up, delivers his poem from memory, walks out the door,

Og han rejser sig, overbringer sit digte citeret fra hukommelsen, går ud af døren,

and at the moment he does,

og i øjeblikket da han gør det, styrter festhallen sammen,

the banquet hall collapses.

og dræber alle derinde.

Kills everybody inside.

Det dræber ikke kun alle,

It doesn't just kill everybody,

it mangles the bodies beyond all recognition.

det lemlæster alle ligene så de er ugenkendelige.

Ingen kan sige hvem der befandt sig derinde,

Nobody can say who was inside,

ingen kan sige hvor de sad.

nobody can say where they were sitting.

The bodies can't be properly buried.

Ligene kan ikke begraves korrekt.

It's one tragedy compounding another.

Den ene tragedie forværrer den anden.

Simonides, standing outside,

Simondies, der står udenfor,

the sole survivor amid the wreckage,

den eneste overlevende i midten af ødelæggelserne,

closes his eyes and has this realization,

lukker sine øjne og gør den opdagelse,

at han for sit indre øje,

which is that in his mind's eye,

he can see where each of the guests at the banquet had been sitting.

kan se hvor alle gæsterne sad ved festmiddagen.

And he takes the relatives by the hand,

Og han tager de pårørende i hånden

and guides them each to their loved ones amid the wreckage.

og fører dem hver især hen til deres kære, midt i ødelæggelserne.

Hvad Simonides fandt ud af i det øjeblik

What Simonides figured out at that moment,

er noget jeg tror vi alle instinktivt ved,

is something that I think we all kind of intuitively know,

which is that, as bad as we are at remembering names and phone numbers,

hvilket er, at hvor dårlige vi end er

til at huske navne og telefonnumre

and word-for-word instructions from our colleagues,

og ord for ord instruktioner fra vores kolleger,

we have really exceptional visual and spatial memories.

så har vi virkelig exceptionelle visuelle og rumlige hukommelser.

Hvis jeg bad Jer om at gengive de første 10 ord

If I asked you to recount the first 10 words of the story

that I just told you about Simonides,

af den historie jeg lige fortalte Jer om Simonides,

ville I sandsynligvis have rigtig svært ved det.

chances are you would have a tough time with it.

Men jeg vil vædde med,

But, I would wager that if I asked you to recall

at hvis jeg bad Jer huske

who is sitting on top of a talking tan horse

hvem der sidder på en talende, mørk hest

i Jeres forhal lige nu,

in your foyer right now,

ville I være i stand til at se det.

you would be able to see that.

The idea behind the memory palace

Ideen med hukommelses paladset

is to create this imagined edifice in your mind's eye,

er at skabe dette forestillede bygningsværk for ens indre øje

and populate it with images of the things that you want to remember --

og fylde det med billeder

af de ting man vil huske --

the crazier, weirder, more bizarre,

jo mere skørt, mærkeligt, bizart,

funnier, raunchier, stinkier the image is,

sjovt, beskidt, stinkende billedet er,

the more unforgettable it's likely to be.

jo mere uforglemmeligt er det.

This is advice that goes back 2,000-plus years

Dette er råd der er mere end 2.000 år gammelt

til de tidligste latinske afhandlinger om hukommelsen.

to the earliest Latin memory treatises.

So how does this work?

Så hvordan virker det?

Let's say that you've been invited to TED center stage to give a speech,

Lad os sige at man er blev inviteret

til at holde en tale ved TED, på den store scene

og man vil give den frit fra hukommelsen,

and you want to do it from memory,

og man vil gøre det på den måde Cicero ville have gjort det,

and you want to do it the way that Cicero would have done it,

if he had been invited to TEDxRome 2,000 years ago.

hvis han var blevet inviteret til TEDxRom for 2.000 år siden.

(Laughter)

What you might do

Hvad man kunne gøre

is picture yourself at the front door of your house.

er at forestille sig, at man stod ved fordøren til ens hus.

Og man ville finde på et eller andet

And you'd come up with some sort of crazy, ridiculous, unforgettable image,

utrolig skørt, latterligt, uforglemmeligt billede

to remind you that the first thing you want to talk about

til at minde en om, at den første ting man skal tale om

is this totally bizarre contest.

er denne totalt bizarre konkurrence.

(Laughter)

Og så går man ind i sit hus,

And then you'd go inside your house,

and you would see an image of Cookie Monster on top of Mister Ed.

og man ville se et billede af Cookie Monster

oven på en Hr. Ed [Talende hest].

And that would remind you

Og det ville minde en om

that you would want to then introduce your friend Ed Cook.

at man ville introducere ens ven, Ed Cook.

Og så ville man se et billede af Britney Spears

And then you'd see an image of Britney Spears

to remind you of this funny anecdote you want to tell.

for at minde en om den sjove anekdote man ville fortælle.

And you'd go into your kitchen,

Og så går man ind i sit køkken,

and the fourth topic you were going to talk about

og det fjerde emne man ville tale om

var denne mærkelige rejse man havde gennemlevet i løbet af et år,

was this strange journey that you went on for a year,

and you'd have some friends to help you remember that.

og man har nogle venner til at hjælpe en med at huske det.

Det er sådan romerske talere huskede deres taler udenad --

This is how Roman orators memorized their speeches --

not word-for-word, which is just going to screw you up,

ikke ord for ord, hvilket bare forvirrer en totalt,

but topic-for-topic.

men emne for emne.

Faktisk, udtrykket "topic sentence",

In fact, the phrase "topic sentence" --

der kommer af det græske ord "topos",

that comes from the Greek word "topos,"

which means "place."

der betyder "område".

That's a vestige of when people used to think about oratory and rhetoric

Det er en levning

fra dengang mennesker tænkte på talekunsten og retorik

i disse rumlige termer.

in these sorts of spatial terms.

The phrase "in the first place,"

Vendingen "in the first place",

det betyder det første sted i ens hukommelses palads.

that's like "in the first place of your memory palace."

I thought this was just fascinating,

Jeg tænkte at dette var utroligt fascinerende,

and I got really into it.

og jeg blev virkelig opslugt af det.

And I went to a few more of these memory contests,

Og jeg tog til lidt flere af disse hukommelses konkurrencer.

and I had this notion that I might write something longer

Og jeg havde denne ide, at jeg måske ville skrive noget større

about this subculture of competitive memorizers.

om denne subkultur med konkurrerende udenads huskere.

Men der var et problem.

But there was a problem.

The problem was that a memory contest

Problemet var, at en hukommelses konkurrence

is a pathologically boring event.

er en patologisk kedeligt begivenhed.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Virkelig, det er flok mennesker der bare sidder og tager en eksamen.

Truly, it is like a bunch of people sitting around taking the SATs --

I mean, the most dramatic it gets

Jeg mener, det mest dramatiske der sker

is when somebody starts massaging their temples.

er at nogen begynder at massere deres tindinger.

Og jeg er en journalist, jeg har brug for noget jeg kan skrive om.

And I'm a journalist, I need something to write about.

Jeg ved at der sker fantastiske ting i disse menneskers sind,

I know that there's incredible stuff happening in these people's minds,

but I don't have access to it.

men jeg har ikke adgang til det.

And I realized, if I was going to tell this story,

Og jeg blev klar over, at hvis jeg ville fortælle denne historie,

I needed to walk in their shoes a little bit.

blev jeg nødt til at gå i deres fodspor, for en stund.

Så jeg begyndte at bruge 15 eller 20 minutter

And so I started trying to spend 15 or 20 minutes

every morning, before I sat down with my New York Times,

hver morgen, før jeg satte mig ned med min New York Times

just trying to remember something.

bare på at prøve at huske noget.

Måske var det et digt.

Maybe it was a poem,

maybe it was names from an old yearbook that I bought at a flea market.

Måske var det navnene fra en gammel årbog

som jeg havde købt på et loppemarked.

Og jeg fandt ud af, at det var utrolig sjovt.

And I found that this was shockingly fun.

I never would have expected that.

Det havde jeg aldrig forventet.

It was fun because this is actually not about training your memory.

Det var sjovt, fordi det egentlig ikke handler om at træne ens hukommelse.

Det man prøver på er, at blive bedre og bedre og bedre

What you're doing, is you're trying to get better and better

til at skabe, og udvikle,

at creating, at dreaming up,

these utterly ludicrous, raunchy, hilarious,

disse komplet latterlige, beskidte, grinagtige

and hopefully unforgettable images in your mind's eye.

og forhåbentlig uforglemmelige billeder for ens indre øje.

And I got pretty into it.

Og jeg blev temmelig opslugt af det.

This is me wearing my standard competitive memorizer's training kit.

Dette er mig, iført mit standard huskekonkurrence trænings kit.

(Laughter)

Det er et sæt øremuffer

It's a pair of earmuffs

and a set of safety goggles that have been masked over

og et sæt sikkerhedsbriller der er blevet lukket til

på nær to små huller,

except for two small pinholes,

because distraction is the competitive memorizer's greatest enemy.

fordi afbrydelser er den konkurrerende huskers største fjende.

Jeg endte med at komme tilbage til den samme konkurrence, som jeg havde dækket året før.

I ended up coming back to that same contest

that I had covered a year earlier,

and I had this notion that I might enter it,

Og jeg havde denne ide om, at jeg måske ville stille op i den,

sort of as an experiment in participatory journalism.

som en slags eksperiment i deltagende journalistik

It'd make, I thought, maybe a nice epilogue to all my research.

Jeg tænkte det ville lave en fint epilog til al min research.

Problem was, the experiment went haywire.

Problemet var at eksperimentet gik i kludder.

I won the contest --

Jeg vandt konkurrencen,

(Laughter)

which really wasn't supposed to happen.

hvilket egentlig ikke var meningen.

(Applause)

(Bifald)

Now, it is nice to be able to memorize speeches

Det er selvfølgelig rart

at kunne lære taler udenad

and phone numbers and shopping lists,

og telefonnumre og indkøbssedler,

men det er faktisk ikke pointen.

but it's actually kind of beside the point.

Dette er bare tricks.

These are just tricks.

Det er tricks der virker

They work because they're based on some pretty basic principles

fordi de bygger på nogle temmelig basale principper

about how our brains work.

om hvordan vore hjerner virker.

Og man behøver ikke at bygge hukommelses paladser

And you don't have to be building memory palaces

or memorizing packs of playing cards

eller at lære rækkefølgen på pakker med spillekort

to benefit from a little bit of insight about how your mind works.

for at drage nytte af en lille smule indsigt

i hvordan ens hjerne fungerer.

We often talk about people with great memories

Vi taler ofte om folk med gode hukommelser

som om det er en medfødt gave,

as though it were some sort of an innate gift,

but that is not the case.

men sådan hænger det ikke sammen.

Great memories are learned.

Gode hukommelser trænes.

På det mest simple niveau, husker vi når vi er opmærksomme.

At the most basic level, we remember when we pay attention.

Vi husker når vi er dybt engagerede.

We remember when we are deeply engaged.

We remember when we are able to take a piece of information and experience,

Vi husker når vi er i stand

til at tage et stykke information og opleve

and figure out why it is meaningful to us,

og regne ud hvorfor det er betydningsfuldt for os,

why it is significant, why it's colorful,

hvorfor det er signifikant, hvorfor det er farverigt,

when we're able to transform it in some way that makes sense

når vi er i stand til at ændre det på en måde

så det giver mening

in the light of all of the other things floating around in our minds,

i forhold til alle de andre ting der flyder rundt i vores sind,

when we're able to transform Bakers into bakers.

når vi er i stand til at ændre Bagere til bagere.

Hukommelses paladset, disse husketeknikker,

The memory palace, these memory techniques --

de er kun genveje.

they're just shortcuts.

In fact, they're not even really shortcuts.

Faktisk, er de ikke rigtig genveje.

They work because they make you work.

De virker, fordi de får en til at arbejde.

De fremtvinger en bearbejdning i dybden,

They force a kind of depth of processing,

a kind of mindfulness,

en art opmærksomhed,

that most of us don't normally walk around exercising.

som de fleste af os ikke har i dagligdagen.

But there actually are no shortcuts.

Men der er faktisk ikke nogen genveje.

Det er sådan ting bliver gjort mindeværdige.

This is how stuff is made memorable.

Og jeg tror, at hvis der er en ting jeg gerne vil lade Jer sidde tilbage med,

And I think if there's one thing that I want to leave you with,

så er det det E.P.,

it's what E.P., the amnesic who couldn't even remember he had a memory problem,

manden med hukommelsesproblemer, der ikke engang kunne huske at han havde hukommelsesproblemer,

left me with,

lod mig sidde tilbage med,

which is the notion that our lives are the sum of our memories.

hvilket er ideen om

at vores liv er summen af vores minder.

How much are we willing to lose

Hvor meget er vi villige til at miste

af vore allerede korte liv

from our already short lives,

by losing ourselves in our Blackberries, our iPhones,

ved at fortabe os selv i vores Blackberries, vores iPhones,

by not paying attention to the human being across from us

ved ikke at lægge mærke til mennesket overfor os

who is talking with us,

der taler med os,

by being so lazy that we're not willing to process deeply?

ved at være så dovne at vi ikke er villige til at

være eftertænksomme?

Jeg lærte på egen krop

I learned firsthand

that there are incredible memory capacities

at der er utrolige kapaciteter for hukommelse

latent in all of us.

latente i os alle.

Men hvis man vil leve et mindeværdigt liv,

But if you want to live a memorable life,

skal man være den slags person

you have to be the kind of person

who remembers to remember.

der husker at huske.

Thank you.

Tak.

(Applause)

(Bifald)