First of all, what is a Memory Palace?
It is simply a mind training process or visualization drill for linking spatial reasoning to facts. In practice, you think of a physical location, then imagine objects in that physical location to recall other memories.
Spacial reasoning is a powerful form of memory. We can often recall places we've gone with great detail, even if we've only been there once.
For places we are very familiar with, the recall is even more concrete. In our Memory Palace, we can leverage spatial reasoning for all kinds of information we want to remember.
As a software developer, I like to approach the Memory Palace as a software suite. It has various features and a UI, of sorts. And most importantly, it's hackable.
Along those lines, I also wonder what kind of "killer apps" might be developed using our Memory Palace. The most obvious one is to use it for arbitrary data.
So, just like the original killer app for the internet might have been e-mail, I'd like to find the killer app for our Memory Palace.
Say you want to memorize a string of numbers (like a phone number or large segments of Pi). Maybe you can place numbers in order on a path that you walk in your mind.
To me, memorizing strings of numbers is rather uninteresting. Not exactly the killer app. A shopping list is probably a better fit. The order doesn’t matter as much with a shopping list, unless you’re going for efficiency, maybe.
In order to explore the idea of killer apps for our Memory Palace, here are some of the ideas I've come up with:
Memory Palace Rails - mprails
If you were to memorize something like a specific string of numbers as opposed to a shopping list where order doesn’t matter, mprails is probably helpful.
One example of mprails is to imagine an attraction at Disneyland: The Haunted Mansion (for example). If you have vivid recall of the order of features on that ride, you can place facts in a particular order and replay them in the correct order.
You could also just use a grassy path without a specific order requirement. Just wander in one direction. Maybe the items you place dictate the order.
Memory Palace Stack - mpstack
Imagine a stack of plates on a spring where the older information gets lost as you stack more information into the same physical place. This is useful for avoiding clutter. There’s high recall for things that got put on the top of the stack and less recall for things below.
In my experience, the stack gets fuzzy except for the first and last item. But the fuzzy ones are retrievable. The problem is, I don't really want the first one to be as retrievable, as the latest one. So it acts more like a sandwich than a stack, at least for me.
Memory Palace Callbacks - mpcb
To me, the callback idea is actually one of the most compelling aspects of designing a killer app. It is a way to recall data when certain events happen.
For example, whenever you take a shower, while your mind may naturally wander, also imagine that you’re taking a shower in your Memory Palace shower. Maybe you have a water-proof notepad in your palace shower with tasks you’d like to tend to on a daily basis.
The name “callback” might not be the most accurate term. It’s more like an "interrupt." But as a modern software developer, I like the idea that it’s a callback vs. interrupt. A callback implies parallelization, which I’m completely ignoring. There is no need to implement parallelization.
You could also just add an item to your physical todo list:
- Buy eggs
- Wash car
- Go to Memory Palace
I'd rather not have physical todo list to remind me. Instead, I happen to have an OCD Tick that I’ve decided to use as a callback trigger. This tick happens every month or two.
I have other callback hooks as well, so I don't have to wait that long.
By the way, the OCD Tick I mentioned is the fact that every one or two months, when my mind is allowed to wander, happen to marvel how time passes.
If you have more frequent OCD events, maybe you can use that to your advantage.
Another good hook is when you have that song in your head that you can't get rid of. I've hooked this into my dad's old stereo in my memory palace. I don't really do anything with it right now, but it does take my mind off of the song.
There is a theory that these songs are an indication of unfinished tasks. So this might be a good place to begin memory palace housekeeping.
Memory Palace Garbage Collection - mpgc
The garbage can is a special implementation of mpstack.
Sometimes it might be nice to remove information from your Memory Palace. For this, imagine the garbage can in the room that is assumed to periodically clear every week or so. You go through the palace and imagine taking objects to the trash.
Memory palaces helped me for exams in medical school. I would incorporate the (major) Peg system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic_peg_system) into my palaces. Put 'meteor' 'tail' 'pink' in your palace and you've memorized the first 8 numbers of pi (3.1415927).
Ok, let me see ...
meteor: 3-1-4tail: 8-5pink: 9-2-7Neat!!