The mind has to "juggle fragments of its mental states." How do agents keep track of fragments during imagining? "They must be stored as memories. But what do we mean by that? Some readers may be surprised to learn that biologists still have no well-established theory of what happens in our brains when memories are formed." Minsky introduces LTM vs STM distinction, and then suggests that we don't remember very much. "Our various agencies selectively decide, unconsciously, to transfer only certain states into their long-term memories -- perhaps because they have been classified as useful, dangerous, unusual, or significant in other respects."
(NB: First, the limited-capacity-of-memory theme is reflected here too, this time with respect to transferring information into more permanent memories. Second, the notion of "keeping track of fragments" reminds me of the kinds of problems that must be faced in visual cognition, problems which Pylyshyn's FINST mechanism are supposed to solve.)
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