ChatGPT Explains Certain Memory Problems

 There are certain phenomena I see over and over again living here in the Old Folks Home. I asked ChatGPT to help me understand some of them, and I thought the response might be of interest to others. Here's my question and ChatGPT's response. 

My Question

I am curious about the behavior of some of the people in my assisted living facility. There are a number of people whom one would judge, from dealing with them, aren't too far mentally impaired. But when it comes to meals there is a curious phenomenon. For each meal we have two seatings. Breakfast is served at 8 and again at 9, lunch at 12 and again at 1:00, and dinner at 5 and again at six. There is assigned seating and so you eat with the same people at every meal. Now, there are some people who eat dinner at 5, and then they show up for the 6 o'clock seating and are sometimes get very angry when they are told they have already eaten. At other times, they don't seem to be bothered at all. I wonder what goes on in their heads. Do they remember from one day to the next that this happens frequently? Don't they know when they arrive at the second seating that the people they eat with every day are not at the table? Could they be given some kind of note taking device that they could refer to to track for themselves whether they have eaten or not? As far as I can tell, their memories seem to work reliably for other purposes. Is there some reason they can remember many other things, but fail in specific tasks again and again? 

ChatGPT's Response

Yes. What you are describing is quite plausible in people with mild or moderate cognitive impairment, and one of the most striking things about memory disorders is precisely their unevenness. A person can seem perfectly lucid in conversation, remember many facts, recognize everyone around them, and yet repeatedly fail at something as seemingly simple as remembering whether they ate dinner an hour ago.

The key is that "memory" isn't a single mental faculty. Different systems handle different kinds of remembering. Someone may retain old memories, vocabulary, social skills, familiar routines, and recognition of people remarkably well while having much more difficulty forming and retrieving memories of recent events. Eating dinner at 5:00 is an event that has to be encoded as something like, "I ate tonight's dinner about 45 minutes ago." If that memory doesn't get firmly encoded, then at 6:00 there may simply be no accessible memory of having eaten.

Funeral rites in Illinois

 So many priests and bishops live lives that are so different than the lives of lay Catholics that they are often completely tone deaf. Hence the distorted théologies about contraception, marriage, and women.  So they come up with rules surrounding the most important events of people’s lives  that drive people out the doors. They did it with marriage prep, and marriages in the church are at historic lows. .  Now it’s not weddings, but funerals.  Infant/ child baptism rules are also extremely burdensome from based on what I was told  about the requirements for the two grandchildren who are baptized Catholics. More reasons among dozens to allow married priests and ordain women priests. They understand real life better than these cold- hearted celibates. 

https://www.ncronline.org/news/illinois-bishop-bars-family-eulogies-same-day-vigils-under-new-funeral-policies

The sedevacancy

No, I'm not talking about the SSPX. It's about Mitch McConnell's Senate seat.  Wasn't today supposed to be the deadline when a special election could be scheduled to fill McConnell's seat unless they could prove that he would be able to fulfill his duties? So far, crickets.

Kentucky governor Andy Beshear has repeatedly asked for McConnell's staff to confirm his actual condition. Some commenters have said he should just march into McConnell's hospital room and verify  what is going on. Which of course he legally can't do.  Not to mention it is not even known at this point which hospital or rehab facility McConnell is in.

My take is that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats want to change the status quo.  The Republicans, because they might lose a special election, or Thomas Massie might run as an Independent, and win. The Democrats, because with McConnell missing in action, it's one less Republican in the Senate.  In any event someone else will be elected in November, McConnell's status notwithstanding. I haven't heard that the Democrats have a candidate yet. They would be well advised to concentrate on that.

My peeps

I feel solidarity with NPR listeners today.

Dr. Fauci and Rand Paul

Heather Cox Richardson had a good piece yesterday on the Rand Paul vs Dr. Fauci congressional hearing. I copied part of it below, and have some comments of my own at the end: 

 July 29, 2026 (Wednesday)

"And so, Republicans are devoting themselves to serving red meat to their MAGA base, ginning up sound bites for distribution on social media. "

"On the menu today was Dr. Anthony Fauci, the 85-year-old former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who, serving in that capacity for 38 years, advised seven different presidents of both parties. President George W. Bush awarded Fauci the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in creating the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has saved an estimated 26 million lives. Trump named Fauci to the President’s Coronavirus Task Force in January 2020. "

A what-if on the 2024 presidential election

Could Kamala Harris have won the 2024 election if Joe Biden had resigned the presidency at the same time he relinquished the party nomination?

Bonus cut: the homily I didn't give today

In my previous post, I posted the homily I gave today, focusing on the first two parables in today's Gospel reading.  But up until late last night, that was not the homily I had planned to give today.  This one I'm posting below the break is the one I had worked on (more to the point, struggled with and fought) for quite a few hours this week.  It's based, not on the parables of Jesus in the Gospel reading, but on the prayer of King Solomon from today's first reading (readings are here).

Before I went to bed last night, I put the finishing touches on this one, practiced giving it, and printed it so it would be all ready to bring with me to the early mass this morning.  But I never loved it.  And I woke up at about 5:30 this morning with the conviction that, if I had enough time, I would redo it.  I had to drop one of my children off at work at 6 am.  That gave me about 50 minutes to draft a new homily.  That is not the recommended way to create a homily!  But I had been ruminating on the readings for days - more than a week - so I wasn't really starting ice-cold. So the new homily just came pouring out through my fingers on the keyboard onto the laptop screen.  I was able to type it out, edit it and print it within a 45 minute window.  I'm quite sure I had divine help getting that done. Then I put on some church clothes and headed to church, arriving in time for 7:30 am mass.  I didn't have time to practice it beforehand, which is not optimal.  But I think it worked out okay.  I gave it again at the 9:30 am mass and I think it was a little stronger that time. 

Here is the one I didn't give.  I'd welcome any comments. My own take is: it is more like a post here at NewGathering than a homily.  I'm glad I changed my mind.