On Wed, 3 Sep 1997, Douglas Williams wrote:
> At 06:00 PM 9/2/97 +0000, Eva wrote:
>
> >The reason I ask is because for other purposes, I would like to be able to
> >say that the present, where we _indeed_ are has a timespan that is both
> >longer and more "viscous" than the seconds on my wristwatch (not to mention
> >milliseconds etc.)
>
> We feel the present is longer, but is it the same present? If I recall
> rightly, short-term memory expires very quickly. Is it the *same* present
> that we remember five minutes later, or is it a *reconstructed* present--in
> which things that did not fit patterns that we already knew, or that we
> created (or remade through analogy or metaphor) in that 45 to 120 second
> area of consciousness, disappear? the whole task of literacy, and the
> intriguing aspect of visual media, is that it provides assistance in this
> process of reconstruction. That we have so much to reconstruct in our very
> complex, socially interactive world, may be the only reason that we are as
> conscious of consciousness as we are.
>
> Doug
>
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Vera P. John-Steiner
Department of Linguistics
Humanities Bldg. 526
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
(505) 277-6353 or 277-4324
Internet: vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu
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