hummingwolf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hummingwolf) wrote2011-08-23 02:51 am
hummingwolf) wrote2011-08-23 02:51 am
Entry tags:
Writer's Block: A stroll down memory lane
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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.
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.
no subject
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.