[UA] Clockworks and Memories

[Joe Murphy (Broin)]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu [mailto:ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu]On
> Behalf Of Antonio Rodriguez
> Sent: 27 June 2001 15:53
> To: ua at lists.uchicago.edu
> Subject: RE: [UA] Clockworks and Memories
>
>
> > > I prefer the idea of a clockworker who spent all his memories on
> > > something _huge_.  He wakes up with total amnesia, including not
> > > remembering what he was building (perhaps he was working with
> > > someone else as well, who promised to clue him in afterward, bu
> > > instead ran off).  After spending time discovering who he is and
> > > what's going  on with the building mechanical oddities, he
> > > discovers the probably reason for his lost memories.  Then it's
> > [snip]
> >
> > Can you get your memories back?
> > I don't have the books to hand, and I can't recall any similar
> > threads, but
> > can you break/magickize/use a clockwork to retrive the memories you
> > 'invested' in it in the first place?
> > Cue every amnesiac clockworker breaking every clockwork he meets.
> > Joe.
> > --
> > Joe Murphy (Broin)
> > broin at notzen.com
>
> I got a rather disturbing idea with this post. If a mechanomancer records
> dutifully whatever happens to him, and then sacrifices the
> memories of these
> events for constructs, can he still re-acquire the knowledge of what
> happened to him through his written accounts?
>
> I'm trying to distinguish the concept of memories and knowledge
> here. Going
> to One-Shots, if Uder Kram-? (don't have the book with me now, sorry) has
> written a detailed log of his wife's illness and death, and sacrificed the
> memory of her death, could he still gain the knowledge of his wife's being
> dead by reading his log? And then how about sacrificing the memory of ever
> having read the log, and then re-reading?
>
> It smells like the worst case of gouda cheese, but at the same
> time, I'm not
> sure how I'd handle it. Any ideas?

There's a short story by Greg Egan, set in a cyberpunky near future. A cop
is chipped with special 'ware. At will, he can control his glands. He can
quiet hunger. Boost his strength. He can also dull his responses to fear,
guilt, and shock. In short, the 'perfect cop'. He can look upon a scene of
horror, take it all in, examine evidence clinically, and decide without
'burden' of emotion.

When he turns off the chip, he tends to suffer a rush of emotions, but then,
at least, he can be counselled somewhat.

So he just happens to have this chip turned on when he hears his wife has
died in an accident. And knows he'll never, ever want to turn it off.

Nice little story.

I'd say no, you can't reaquire the memories. Theywouldn't gel, they wouldn't
make sense. They'd be like reading a story of your life. Or at most, like
reading a long-lost email or diary entry. Or seeing a signature that looks
*quite* like your own.


Joe.


--
Joe Murphy (Broin)
broin at notzen.com

"You'll regret being so damn abusive when
the electric UFO gods transphase in from
Dimension 10 to appoint me manager of
the universe."  - The Drummer, Planetary.




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