Writer's Block: A stroll down memory lane

[hummingwolf]

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If I lose my old memories, will I also lose the knowledge that I ever had old memories? Learning new things while forgetting the old might be bearable... if I could forget that I ever was the person who had those old memories. But then you come to the ancient philosophical question: If I lose all my memories, am I still the same person?* And is it possible for me to know with any reasonable amount of certainty whether the person who comes after me, who has no memories of who I am now, would be the sort of person who could be happy learning new things while remembering none of the old?**





* My answer: Yes and No. So helpful.

** Probably not. I suspect a lot would depend on their/my first few new memories, the new formative experiences. While some basic biological personality might play a role, I suspect a big part of my basic biological personality is always going to be highly sensitive to experience.

Comments

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

I would rather lose the old memories and be able to make new ones. Someone who cannot ever form new memories would be confined to an institution for life, since xie would never be able to function again in society. With retrograde amnesia, the possibility of learning things in the future would be spared.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

People who can't form new memories can function somewhat if people around them help, and if their job is one that only requires them to do things they're familiar with.

A lot depends on what kind of memories we're talking about, though. Losing memories of everything that's happened in my life is one thing and potentially devastating in itself; losing more functional memories, like how to talk or how to walk, could be traumatizing in a bigger way.