The Deeper Thinkers

Depending upon how broadly we define "memories," I think we ARE our memories--at least the "I" that I think of myself as being. Without my memories, which include what I've learned, I don't know my family or friends, don't know math, don't know "Mood Indigo" or "The Little Prince" or any of the millions and millions of experiences that combine to make me, "Me." Good grief, I might accidentally eat liver, and have to learn that painful lesson again!

I saw a similar movie a while ago, where people's memories were stored in some kind of individual cases, and after a certain period of time, if they did not restore your memories, you died. I can't remember the name of it or anything else about the movie, though.

Good grief. Where do you come up with these things? I saw the movie but the topic is so---Marti.

I think that you would have to be a conspiracy theorist extraordinaire to believe in someone toying with our memories. Having said that, I know that a lot can be done through psychoanalysis as far as enabling your to recall memories or to block unpleasant things from your memory. I also saw the Tommy Lee Jones-Will Smith movies when they would hold a futuristic flash device in front of their eyes to remove memory. Pure fantasy.

The more common way to play with your memory is choosing which things to remember and which things to forget. My wife and I remember certain things differently. Some things she talks about I do not recall at all and visa versa. We see things and retain things through our own unique lenses.

The false memory idea has some potential. If memories were categorized certain ways on Amazon, I may be interested. For example, I might revise a memory that had one of my teams winning the Super Bowl instead of coming in second. Or, I might buy a memory of a fine dinner, wine, and a weekend in a five star hotel on the French Riveria with wild lovemaking with Sophia Loren. Yes, I am starting to like this idea. Marti, please try to keep the cost down.

You would be a different person. Until the memory runs out!

Marti,
that movie sound gross! I guess it's the phlegm part....icky!!

but.... I think if I had a new set of memories I would NOT be a different person, just one that would respond differently to the world and my personal life issues.

Starrybright

I started thinking about this and my head started to hurt! thinking is hard for the Irish because it involves the movement of stone tablets in our heads. but of course our life experiances (memories) shape and mold us much like the wind and tides shape a beach.

Yes, I would be Carlo Ponti...

How do we know that the memories we have are ours?
Before movies like Total Recall, and the Matrix we were very sure. Now we have pause to consider.

And do our memories make us who we are?
I think so. Memories are what we use to compare what we've learned to what new experiences.

Are we not ourselves without our memories?
Of this I'm not so sure. At birth we're hardwired with operational memory that control motor functions like breathing, involuntary eye batting, peeing and pooping.
The rest is programed over time.

If you were able to buy a set of false memories, and have them supplant the ones you have now, would you be a different person?
I think you would have to be a different person being that it is your memories that give you insight into the present.

Well what about people who get amnesia? Complete amnesia. Memories are completely wiped out. They have to learn everything again from walking to how to use a knife and fork to being toilet trained as if they were infants. They never get those memories back. They dont know their friends, families even their spouse is a stranger,their children. They have nothing left of who they were.
I believe they are changed forever. I believe even their personality can be different. After all our personalities develop through our life experiences and what happens to us along the way.
I think we are not who we are if we dont have our memories.

If we are what we remember, then its the blue pill, right?

So, what about this red pill business?, and what if what we remember is replaced or altered then by what? And are we then different by design, or at least by the consequence of a changed memory?, maybe.

Though in previous threads there has been a discussion of the consequences of hardwiring by biological processes and genetic code which may or may not determine behavior. And isn't this the nature/nurtured debate?, recast a bit as to the influence and determination by inherent personality and innate capabilities keyed by experience and ongoing behavior, retained as a set of memories.

So would things be different if experienced differently and different choices made?, sure, in my case it would be, but would I be a different person, I don't know, and its time for the pill anyway.

I believe alternate memories could change person. Example: I love beach/swimming and have positive memories since childhood. Replace those with near death drowning memory and would lose that love of ocean. Other alternate memories would also cause changes in behavior. One purpose of memory is survival tool, this could also cause dramatic change.