Discussion Losing memories

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by Beltran, Dec 26, 2018.

?

Do you want to have selective amnesia?

  1. Yup

    57.7%
  2. Nope

    30.8%
  3. ... What's that?

    23.1%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Beltran

    Beltran Seafarer

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    I wonder, if a person's memories from 5 years ago until now got wiped clean, would that person revert back to how he/she was (personality, disposition, temperament-wise) 5 years ago?

    I always though that it is our memories that makes us who we are today (or at least one of the major factors). It's a great foundation of our current selves so losing them would probably like losing yourself... but you wouldn't know cause you don't even "remember" you had those memories in the first place.

    Also, what if these memory came back? Are you, prior to the memory loss thing, the same as the you that lost and regained the memory back?
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2018
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  2. Anra7777

    Anra7777 All powerful magic grammar hamster queen pirate.

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    Why would I want to forget everything about my husband or about my mother’s death or my entire time spent at law school? Even with all the hard times, I’m happier now than I was five years ago. Why would I want to lose that?
     
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  3. Fukoda

    Fukoda Time wait for no one

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    once you reach adulthood you prety much dont change
    a 15 year old that lost memorie can change
    a 30 year old that lost memorie will stay around the same
     
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  4. Beltran

    Beltran Seafarer

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    Was just asking a hypothetical question. :blobpeek::blobpeek:
     
  5. Odyssey

    Odyssey Well-Known Member

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    with current events I would so like to forget about the current president...….
     
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  6. SoulZer0

    SoulZer0 Heaven Refining

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    1)compile all of my favourite novels, anime and manga
    2)write a note to repeat all of these
    3)delete all of my memories about them
    4)infinite happiness
    5)???
    6)profit
     
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  7. Olives

    Olives [Former] Professional Basement Dweller

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    God, this reminds me of the play in Yagate Kimi Ni Naru. (Didn't watch the anime so idk if it was in it but this is around ~Ch. 30 in the manga)
    In the play the protagonist was basically an amnesiac and she talks to people in her life and learns that they all have different viewpoints of her. Her classmate says she was a model student, her brother says she was always a distant person, and her lover she was needy and would cry. And finally, the nurse says that if she in the "present" is her, and she can't be forced to change
    Personally, if my new self was a lot different compared to me right now, then I think I'd rather just have the new self be me.
    (Totally not because current me would find it way to troublesome to rationale this out :blobsleeping:)
     
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  8. mmsupreme

    mmsupreme How do I change my custom title?

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    Definitely ill forget all the spoilers to my favorite shows and even some of my favorite shows entirely so i can enjoy the experience of watching them for the forst time again.
     
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  9. SnowTime

    SnowTime Busy Busy Busy, I Dug Too Many Holes

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    Hmm.... my memory already works that way to an extent (health problems) if something was interesting enough I generally have an "impression" rather than an actual memory of something...

    But if even that's wiped then yeah... I don't think I will change...

    Oh right, forgot about muscle memory and habits
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2018
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  10. Nimroth

    Nimroth Someone

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    Dunno, getting memory wiped would likely affect your personality, but it would likely not completely revert you to what you was like before.
    You might not remember those past 5 years, but you would be aware of that you are missing 5 years of memories, your surroundings and relationships will have changed during that time, so just adapting to all that will affect you heavily.
     
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  11. Ai chan

    Ai chan Queen of Yuri, Devourer of Traps, Thrusted Witch

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    Not really. What we consider memory are tangible recollections of the past, stored as neurons in our brain. However, even without previous memory, we will not be much different. Your instincts and muscle memory can't be removed. If you've always slapped someone with your right hand, you won't suddenly slap someone with your left hand after you've lost your memory.

    For that matter, a baker who loses his memory everytime he goes to sleep will forget the recipe but he will not forget how to bake bread or how much sugar to put in. He just won't be able to tell you recipe.
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2018
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  12. Arcadia Blade

    Arcadia Blade ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ You can do it!!

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    I would actually become a mass murderer. No, i'm not joking. Since my memories are like a foundation of myself and if i ever forget at least 5 years, i would actually go mentally insane. How could i stay sane when my mother died on my birthday, uncle on my christmas eve by a cop and all the nice people i know suddenly disappear and had made me sane till now. Plus, with my bad luck and my reformation at a catholic school would be critically important to the foundation of myself.
     
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  13. Lazriser

    Lazriser Well-Known Member

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    I would like amnesia, since you're technically killing "me". Good riddance of this life, the new "me" shall be the one to suffer now. Best Christmas gift I could have!
     
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  14. reagents 11

    reagents 11 disaster personified

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    No i had my bitter experience and traumatic one as well but in the end now i am pretty much resistant to much of them. I grew twisted and cynical in personality but even if i revert back into the innocent me that know nothing about them there's no guarantee i could never go through the same experience. I would rather know better to react with experience than not.
     
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  15. honglath

    honglath I miss my PC

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    Dude, we suffer selective amnesia constantly.
    Can you remember everything you did as a kid? Everything you said up until now?
    No, you can't.

    When you focus on something, you tend to ignore everything else. That cool show you love? Oh wow, how time passes! Oh shit, class started twenty minutes ago!
    Spending time with someone you don't like? Blah, blah, blah.. When will this torment end?

    Different instincts and emotions govern our priorities and which memories take precedence when deciding how to act.

    You take self-defense classes and are top student, but when at gun/knife point during an actual robbery, you freeze and forget all training. Your inexperienced mind decides it's better to focus on fight-or-flight reaction sense than to recall the training you did for this exact situation.
    But even then, your body will react in ways it is accustomed to. If the lessons you took thus far were drilled into you until they became instinctual, you'll find yourself doing stuff without thinking, like running away to safety or disabling the opponent.

    On a subconscious level, we forget a lot of stuff and may recall it if needed, but recovery is not certain. And it is certainly not exact.

    Memories don't stay fixed in time. Every time we recall them, we actually recreate them with new bits of knowledge gained since added as flavour.
    So if you suddenly lose 5 years worth of memories, it doesn't mean you get an exact backup of all your memories up until 5 years ago.
    Everything you forgot in those 5 years is still forgotten, your memories are already changed, degraded or corrupted. The passage of time isn't truly erased.
    Though similar, the you 5 years ago and the you with the last 5 years of memories erased are two different people.

    But i'm not a brain researcher. I don't know its secrets and intricacies. It may indeed be capable of preserving and restoring all of one's memories intact, fresh as if just made.
    However, as with any computer, repeated cases of applied blunt force trauma have proven that even the best of hardware can't ever fully recover lost software data.. even just one bit of corruption will always apply.
     
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