The Man With The Seven Second Memory
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as the extended documentary on an extreme case of amnesia whenever memory loss or consciousness comes up.
What it is
A documentary on Clive Wearing, a renowned musician whose brain was damaged by a virus in 1985, leaving him with a memory spanning only about seven seconds. It follows his life and condition.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2020 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends gattilorenz · 2020-09 · on “After simple dental surgery, a man lost his ability to form new memories”
For another incredible case of retrogade amnesia, check the story of Clive Wearing, the men with a few seconds of memory. Short clip: [LINK] Extended documentary: [this video] I learned of him through neuroscience classes. That was plenty of years ago, and I still think of his condition every now and then. One thing that amazes me is that he keeps stacks of diaries where he keeps erasing the previous entry, adding the current date and time, and writing "first entry I made consciously" ( [this video] ). But also, it seems that over time he does learn something new, somehow. For example, he can now reliably "predict" the ending of movies he has seen a great amount of times after the amnesia started, wit
Recommends passion__desire · 2024-08 · on “There Is No Antimemetics Division (2018)”
Have you seen the documentary "7 second memory man" on BBC. It is about an intelligent person who is confined to live with only 7 second memory. He keeps a diary recording his entries. As he reads past entries, he realises the predicament he is in and considers that his case would be interesting to doctors. Then forgets all about that. Rediscovering the whole thing again in the next 7 seconds for himself anew. 44:20 @ [this video]
Cites Roya1jr · 2026-05 · on “Richard Dawkins concludes AI is conscious, even if it doesn't know it”
Well there is a man called Clive Wearing who has a 7 second memory, he still believes he's been "dead"/unconscious since he's illness in 1985, every 7 seconds even when they show him videos of himself from earlier in the day or things he's written down he doesn't believe it's him he believes the 7 seconds he's in is the true first conscious moment he's had, he even keeps a diary and writes the time he truly believes is the first time being conscious it's filled with multiple entries spanning decades.Whats interested he still retains knowledge of the world and other things but he has to be "prompted" in the right way to get that out of him, the only things he seems to remembers truly are some