Songs: Fuzzy Trace Theory

notes / gigs / releases

In the 1960s super-villains had
A range of handy gadgets they could use for being bad
Like shrinking rays and lasers, hypno-gas and killerbots
But there's another item that it seems we have forgot

They were well ahead of us by at least fifty years
Super-villains were all hybrid meetings pioneers
They'd pop up on the telly or on any viewing screen
But it's hardly mentioned in my survey - what can it all mean?

Viewing screens have been forgot
Are they in my survey? No they're not
Who even remembered them? Hardly anyone
And as it turns out they're not the only one
Not the only one

Baddies in the seventies would regularly ride
To the United Nations where they'd get the delegates hypnotised
Because in Marvel comics the UN can legally declare
That e.g. Doctor Doom's the leader of the whole world everywhere

It's a bit of a flaw in the system which does at least explain
Why the UN in our own world doesn't work in the same way
But it doesn't tell us why a thing that happened all the time
Is once again almost entirely absent from replies

The United Nations has been forgot
Is it in my survey? No it's not
Who even remembers it? Hardly anyone
And so we must ask ourselves what is going on?
What is going on?

It's Fuzzy Trace Theory
It's Fuzzy Trace Theory
It's Fuzzy Trace Theory

So, FTT says memories are stored in these two ways
Verbatim which is precise but does tend to fade
And Gist, which isn't accurate but lasts a longer time
And also changes, which explains it: our memories aren't right

As verbatim memory begins to disappear
We rely upon the gist, which updates our ideas
So now we all have viewing screens and they're more domestic
We're less likely to think of them in a supervillain's schtick

And while the UN used to be on telly quite a lot
Is it on the news these days? No it's not
Who even remembers it? Hardly anyone
But at least we now all know what is going on -
And here's what's going on

It's Fuzzy Trace Theory
It's Fuzzy Trace Theory
It's Fuzzy Trace Theory

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

Technically speaking Fuzzy Trace Theory does not appear in either my PhD thesis OR my book. My INTEREST in it came about when I was trying to give reasons for the fact that some aspects of Doom which were HIGHLY apparent in my analysis did not appear AT ALL in the survey of 225 fans of Doctor Doom. I presented it at The Superhero Project in Eastbourne in 2024 as a paper called When the world catches up with science-fiction: Doctor Doom and the missing view screens and liked it so much that I adapted it into this here song for Data and Doctor Doom .