As the title says, what are the limitations and uses of memory palace?
Currently I think the greatest limitation of Loci method is that you cannot reason with the info, only store and recall it.
And the uses mostly include adresses, phonenumbers etc things that don’t need to get processed, only recalled.
What do you think?
What do you mean by “reason with the info” and what makes that inability (assuming it’s true) undesirable?
The first thing that comes to my mind is when I memorized some stuff from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. The whole point was to be able to “reason” with the material - not just to reproduce it, but to make my intimate knowledge of it part of my thinking and writing, deepened by actually having it in my head, not just on index cards.
In other words, I’m curious to know what you mean by “reason with the info” because it is precisely the ability of Memory Palaces to make reasoning with information possible that has made them so great for me! 
As for the limited uses to addresses and phone numbers, etc. … if people choose those limits, it’s their loss. Memory Palaces can (and should) be used to memorize anything that your heart desires.
For example:
You have memorized in a memory palace 10 different names.
You have memorized normally 10 other names.
When talking, thinking, writing, the normally acquired memories will pop in your mind on their own as part of the
intellectual discourse you’re having in your mind.
While in Loci you have to first actively recall the specific info and then try to integrate/reason with the rest of the intellectual foundation.
In Loci, memories don’t communicate with other neural networks because they are contained in restricted environment, physically.
In order to remember an element you’d have to go through all the route to find the specific memory and hold it in your working memory to be connected with the rest of your brain, which I think what thinking is.
No, I often have little flashes where a part of a memory palace goes through my head. AND you can see what else that info is linked to right away, what comes after it etc.
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I too have flashes of the Memory Palace journeys, but when correctly used, they soon become mostly unnecessary.
For me, this is the point of a Memory Palace:
Place the information and code it so it’s memorable. Rehearse the information on a set-pattern to help ease it into long term memory (taking care to organize my memory goals in such a way that, with the exception of drills for practice, I’m only focusing on information that I want in long term memory in the first place)
When this is achieved, it’s nice to have a Memory Palace with associative-imagery to rely on as a crutch, but as Bateman says, little more than a flash is needed to illuminate a very powerful chain that takes care of the rest.
Perhaps the “flashes” wasn’t the right term for it because I have them too, “meaningful flashes” might fit better.
Let me elaborate.
Lets take for example a periodic table.
Two people, one memorizes periodic table through Loci and the other naturally and gradually through rote memorization.
In the natural/rote memorization way, the neural connections that hold all the memories of the elements in the periodic table are “closely” connected to the base of knowledge of chemistry, the overall and intuitive understanding of how chemistry works.
Because you learn the elements/table within the chemistry context.
When using Loci, you store the periodic table in an arbitrary way, you connect it to vivid images and places that doesn’t have to do with the intutive understanding of chemistry.
Which translates into entirely different neural patheways that aren’t directly connected to the neural base knowledge, memory etc etc of overall chemistry knowledge.
In natural memorization, if you want to think of how water behaves in such and such manner, the information of the elements that comprise the water naturally appear before you giving you further insight and understanding, because it’s part of the neural network of the chemistry knowledge base, the chemistry context.
In Loci this simply wont happen, your brain doesn’t think the elements within your palace has anything to do with chemistry, compounds, materials etc.
Loci is memorization not learning, learning is memorization by context and Loci by definition does the opposite of that.
Loci and similar techniques are just external types of memories WITHIN our brains.
It’s like having a piece of paper with the elements in our brains but retrievable at any given time, unlike actual external memories which need to be physically present.
I feel Loci is useful in the way that you can store large amount of info in your brain and gradually retrieve with ease and order and apply it to the context you want gradually, which I think the overall net effect is a positive for Loci when learning large or/and complex volume of information.
To be fair, alot of people use rote/repetitive memorization OUT of context, which is the worst of both worlds.
Anyhow, you mentioned that you applied palace memories to actual real-life, actual knowledge-base context, and I agree that’s how it should be done, assuming this is what you meant.
The whole jazz I’m trying to bring home is that, Loci memorization in on itself doesn’t hold any intrinsic understanding, no matter how many years you hold that information and rehearse it, if you don’t recall and apply the information to contextual knowledge it’s gonna be just a flow of dry facts.
A question for you.
For how long can you retain, say 50 words of info in your palace, rehearsing only the day you acquire them and never again?
How would you check?
The main reason for storing things(for me) is to recall it in the recent future, maybe even on multiple occasions. No use in memorizing words that I’m not going to use/rehearse. Some words I memorized a couple months ago and I use them whenever I get the chance. Sanctimonious for example. Magnanimous… I don’t rehearse them now, they have molded into my normal vocabulary, but I used them deliberately the two weeks or so.
Bateman
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Welp it’s a given that everytime you recall a memory you reinfornce it.
I was talking about not taking any deliberate rehearsal of a memory.
I’m guessing the numbers ranges from days to forever, it really depends how good is the anchoring of the information.
In my first try I managed to memorize about 20 words in 5-7 minutes and recite them correctly even after couple of hours.
Although now most of the words faded, granted I didn’t use any memory palace to store them, it was just that one session and it wasn’t even a spacial nagivation, just weird images one after another, it was quite inefficient.
How do you memorize words?