What does it mean here by the sentence below?

Question

'Human memory has never been perfect and It will continue to fail us as we grow older'

Why is the present perfect tense used here 'Human memory has never been perfect', not simple present tense 'Human memory is never perfect or Human memory is not perfect? Please explain it.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

roky0071Why is the present perfect tense used here

Because it emphasizes a time span starting in the past and continuing through the present. It is more natural in this sentence. It refers more to an individual human rather than the entire species.

Anonymous · Answer

roky0071Why is the present perfect tense used here 'Human memory has never been perfect', not simple present tense 'Human memory is never perfect or Human memory is not perfect?

The writer made a poor choice. To say that human memory has never been perfect refers to the kind of memory that human beings have now and have always had. The writer then switches to "it will continue to fail us", referring to the kind of memory present-day human beings have. He then goes on to make it worse by saying "as we grow older", meaning that the writer himself and his readers will suffer from faulty memory as our age advances, without ever saying what everybody who reads that thinks he must have meant, which is that our minds falter in old age. That age-induced deterioration is irrelevant to human memory in general, which is what he started talking about. The writer is confused, and I think that is a good thing, because we can then take whatever he has to say later with a grain of salt.

I can't recommend a better way of putting it because it is basically nonsense.

What does it mean here by the sentence below?

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