On further review, the QMs have concluded the following on Iron Nerve memorization:
- Motions that are stored in the IN can be thought of as something like videotape -- they record a thing exactly as you performed it, with perfect fidelity. (This includes errors, inefficiencies, etc.) The difference is that these recordings are kinesthetic, not audiovisual.
- Assuming you remember that the tape exists, you can replay it at will. There is a very small degree of "flex" allowed -- you can still use the IN to walk across a field despite the fact that the field you are currently in does not have precisely the same topography as the one where you were originally recording the walking. The amount of flex allowed is very small and should be considered fluff, not crunch. You will not be able to munchkin it, by fiat.
- You could therefore use the IN for memorization. In theory, you could even use it to record speech. You would need to create a shorthand system that was fast enough to keep up with the spoken word and use it as the other person was talking. Again, you need to have the reflexes and training to do this -- the IN doesn't solve it for you.
- This goes back to the videotape analogy -- the fact that you have the recording doesn't help unless you can remember that you have it and "where it is" (so to speak). This is relatively easy for things that you use a lot, like martial arts and calligraphy, but human memory is terrible and if you don't access a pattern fairly often you'll forget how to retrieve it.
If you want to record conversations, you will need to:
- Come up with a relevant shorthand system
- Practice using it in order to develop the reflexes necessary. This is not something the IN will help with.
- Figure out an 'indexing' system so that you don't forget what you have stored.
- Once you've recorded something you may need to replay it in order to job your normal memory. It's the same way that you may not consciously remember where the keys on a keyboard are, but you can mime typing and then reference what your fingers did in order to figure out the keyboard layout.
We do not believe that the human brain/body have enough bandwidth to do this sort of recording using anything other than the hands, so your system will need to be something manual. This will mean that you can't use handseals or do anything else that requires your hands while memorizing. We also don't believe that such a system can be made so subtle that people watching you won't notice it, meaning that you're going to look somewhat spastic and once people learn what you're doing they will probably be creeped out.
