[UA] Clockworks and Memories

[Royal Minister of Stuff]

Philip K. Dick talks about this sort of thing in "Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (Blade Runner) and
"Man in the High Tower" and even a little in "Our
Friends from Phrygia 8" (I always get the name of the
planet wrong.)

The emotional content of memories is very, very
important to us.  It can be very disturbing to hold a
picture in your hand of a relative or family member
and not remember how you felt about this person (I had
to have therapy over this sort of thing when I was in
High School.  I tend to be a little emotionally
repressed.  I'm Better now.)

I mean, sure, I know I've got a Great Grandma Vena,
but I don't remember her touch or her smell.  I don't
remember how I felt when she was around.  Did I resent
the fact that I don't speak Spanish so well (I was
really bad as a kid) and she spoke no English at all? 
Why don't I remember anything about her?  I can
identify her photo because I have it labelled and
someone pointed it out.  I've heard tons of stories
about her, but there's no connection.  I only look at
the picture when I'm in a "weird mood."

Does that help?


--- Andrew Ducker <Andrew at Ducker.org.uk> wrote:
> Wednesday, June 27, 2001, 3:52:52 PM, Antonio wrote:
> 
> AR> I'm trying to distinguish the concept of
> memories and knowledge here. Going
> AR> to One-Shots, if Uder Kram-? (don't have the
> book with me now, sorry) has
> AR> written a detailed log of his wife's illness and
> death, and sacrificed the
> AR> memory of her death, could he still gain the
> knowledge of his wife's being
> AR> dead by reading his log? And then how about
> sacrificing the memory of ever
> AR> having read the log, and then re-reading?
> 
> I'd have the memories fade over time.  Something
> like memento (but not
> that extreme unless a _lot_ of memories were gone. 
> So sacrificing the
> memory of your wifes death, but having the rest of
> the memories, and
> then reading about it would probably bring back the
> memories for
> days/weeks or even months (especially if you were
> doing something that
> used those memories a lot).
> 
> If, on the other hand, you'd sacrificed all of your
> memories of your
> wife, you've got nothing left to remind yourself of
> her existence and
> even if you're told, the memories will fade within
> minutes.
> 
> Andy D


=====
-- Rp Bowman, Royal Minister of Stuff
The Electronic Nation of Yokeltania:
http://www.geocities.com/yokeltania/

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