[gregjor]

Perhaps at this time in history, in some cultures. I doubt our hunter-gather ancestors got depressed and killed themselves after surviving a trauma. I don't think depression and PTSD and suicide happen at constant rates across human cultures, and certainly not in apes or other mammals. You're confusing social pressures and cultural effects with biological evolution.

[srikanthsrnvs]

I was just giving you an example of memories that would not be evolutionary beneficial to retain. Obviously that ex gf/suicide was an anecdote to our imperfect memory retention, and has nothing to do with evolution

[srikanthsrnvs]

Perhaps not, but the part of our brain responsible for optimizing contentment would ideally prefer deleting traumatic memories

[gregjor]

I don't think any part of our brain is "responsible for optimizing contentment" or "deleting traumatic memories."

In evolutionary terms, individual organisms are optimized for reproducing and living long enough to give their offspring (more accurately, their genes) a good shot at survival. Richard Dawkins explains that in The Selfish Gene and other books. "Contentment," a human social construct, and classifying a memory as "traumatic" probably have little to do with what evolution has optimized us (or any organism) for. If we reproduce and pass on our genes, then slowly die a miserable and traumatic death, that makes no difference in terms of evolution.

[jelliclesfarm]

ok. so your mind is made up. thanks for sharing.