To think is to forget

A fall from a horse leaves the character of Borges’ “Funes the Memorious” paralyzed and with the ability to recall everything in perfect detail. This seems like a superpower but is crippling, much more than the paralysis itself, because he cannot really think.

With no effort, he had learned English, French, Portuguese and Latin. I suspect, however, that he was not very capable of thought. To think is to forget differences, generalize, make abstractions. In the teeming world of Funes, there were only details, almost immediate in their presence.

The following description matches the process of image classification.

Not only was it difficult for him to comprehend that the generic symbol dog embraces so many unlike individuals of diverse size and form; it bothered him that the dog at 3:14 (seen from the side) should have the same name as the dog at 3:15 (seen from the front).