Quote:
Originally Posted by Billi
First, I had the impression that he was teasing Watson, that he was very well aware that the earth is surrounding the sun and not otherwise.
I like his idea (and in that he most probably erred) that the brain can only store a finite amount of information and that he has to set priorities which information. And in his endless wisdom he realised that this knowledge about the solar system won't be useful for his work in any way so he can skip it - ingenious, adorable.  |
Actually, I finished Study in Scarlet, and let me thinking about that, and Homes makes a good point:
Brain is not really elastic; it is a confined and meased space (the size of your inner skull).
Yet, by modern anatomy we know that knowledge (specially memory) is the connection between neurons. The more you reinforce that neuron connection (photographic memory, memorising by heart, etc) the better that knowledge is "burnt" into your brain. The less fragile that knowledge is "burnt" (acknowledge), the more probable is it that we will forget until somethings reminds us of it.
So, it is possible that as Homes said; it is false that the brain is elastic, as our brain is confined in a definite space. That doesn't mean we should stop trying from gathering the most knowledge we can, though.