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If you had a false memory how would you know?
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2021-05-28 at 9 AM UTCAre you familiar with the concept of false memories? It's not just misremembering something. It's like a normal memory but your brain has filed it under 'autobiographical', instead of whatever else it was. I have reason to believe i have a false memory about something.
It's pretty interesting actually. It goes a little like this. When i was really smol, there was a fire in the town i grew up in. In my memory it destroyed a house, and i was there, not in the house or anything, but i remember watching the fire when i was a kid. When i ask people that grew up where i did about it i get mixed answers some don't remember some say, maybe.
I guess i could go to the city ask for the records, the problem is if it really happened i was too young to remember stuff like the date exactly when it was. Too long ago for cell phone cameras as well. I am the unreliable narrator of the story of my life...
Which is an unsettling thought but there is precedent in my brain for something like this. Perhaps you'll recall because i've told parts of this story before. But a girl i used to know got murdered. My brain pulled a switcheroo on me and i could have sworn it was some girl i didn't know that well. Fast forward a few years and i am talking to my high school buddy and we're discussing what happened and we got into an argument about her. Because we couldn't agree on her identity, turns out i knew her a lot better than my brain was letting on.
Know any murdered girls? It's a strange sort of feel, and i wouldn't necessarily recommend it. So i figure my brain agrees with me on that one, which is where the discrepancy arises. However, what's so bad about a fire? To the best of my memory no one died in the fire. Maybe they did maybe they didn't. How would i know? -
2021-05-28 at 9:38 AM UTC
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2021-05-28 at 9:39 AM UTCThere's no such thing as a veridical memory.
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2021-05-28 at 9:41 AM UTCu gotta takepictures of vertical memories bc otherwise uwont remember
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2021-05-28 at 9:42 AM UTC
okay i thought this somg was by vertical horizon i fucked it up i apologize
/gay -
2021-05-28 at 9:45 AM UTCPhallus memories
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2021-05-28 at 9:52 AM UTC
Originally posted by General Butt.Naked
okay i thought this somg was by vertical horizon i fucked it up i apologize
/gay
He's saying there is no such thing as true memories. Which may be true but as long as everyone agrees with me on the state of the collective delusion at least i won't have to feel like a crazy person. -
2021-05-28 at 1:06 PM UTC
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2021-05-28 at 1:13 PM UTC3rd party corroboration of the alleged "event/memory"...if there isn't any you're probably full of shit.
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2021-05-28 at 1:36 PM UTC
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2021-05-28 at 4:34 PM UTCThe author of this post has returned to nothingnessThe following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire!
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2021-05-28 at 4:35 PM UTC
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2021-05-28 at 4:36 PM UTCI've lost track of alts, is Chariman Takashitty, Hiki or MMR?
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2021-05-28 at 4:47 PM UTCWell, it's a cold world, and I'm in the middle
Caught in the in-between
I don't belong here, so I'm writing to you
It's wrong here
And I'm sending you some letters from the Earth
Well, it's a new world
And now I'm a stranger
(Stranger than you know)
I don't belong here
And I'm writing to you with blood on my hands
What if I send you madness?
What if I send you pain?
And letters from Earth
Alright
Come on, it's another game
But you gotta play on
'Cause they say it's just pretend
Ask them why they say you'll never never die
Come on, this game is called The End
Well, it's a cold world, and I'm in the middle
Caught in the in-between
I don't belong here
So I'm writing to you
Hey, let me explain
What if I send you confusion?
What is the time and the pain worth?
Oh, no, no
I'm only sending letters from the Earth
Alright
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2021-05-28 at 5:08 PM UTC
Originally posted by netstat it has always fucked me up to think about the fact that my identity is nothing but an accretion of sensory experiences and unreliable memories, i've always been someone who prefers solitude (or have i? is this an accurate or significantly distorted perception? i'll never know) so most of my experiences haven't been in the presence of anyone who could corroborate them, many posts and discussion with random acquaintances on message boards and in chats lost to the anaals of the web, i hate being in photos or on video especially recently since everything gets uploaded to the web and eventually shared with the public, but this started as a kid and therefore there's little evidence i know of beyond my memories and some photos and videos i took of things i was building of how i behaved, what i was interested in and what i looked like between the age of about 12 and my current age (30)
i have an idea, but ideas and memories are just heavily pruned neural networks in shitty meat computers, my whole idea of myself and my past may be nothing close to reality
would it have been better to keep more records, documenting and photographing life the way most people are inclined to do nowadays? i'm not sure, some of my memories are pleasant and i don't know if that's because they were genuinely good experiences or if nostalgia has permanently distorted them, perhaps being able to go back and see that maybe times really weren't that great would further ruin me psychologically and destroy what little tether i still have to the world
otoh, maybe knocking nostalgic experiences off their pedestal would make me feel better about the things i currently believe i've ruined through poor decision making, or maybe it would further constrast the ideas in my head about the past with the reality of now and drive me to kill myself
who knows, the only thing i know for sure is that it's better never to be
If we can rely on our knowledge about a certain subject to be mostly true most of the time i think it's safe to assume our knowledge about ourselves is mostly true most of the time. We may never really know for certain, like you said it's an idea.
I seem to have a lot of memories about you. And while they're all just a snapshot and none of them show a clear picture. When i rifle through them fast enough they make a little movie. We can talk about the movies in our head, and perhaps when we see ourselves reflected, if nothing else, it won't be so lonely. -
2021-05-28 at 5:08 PM UTC
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2021-05-28 at 5:12 PM UTC
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2021-05-28 at 5:13 PM UTC
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2021-05-28 at 5:19 PM UTCThe faintest ink is better than the strongest memory - ancient Chinaman sayingThe following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire!
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2021-05-28 at 5:21 PM UTC
Originally posted by Jiggaboo_Johnson Don't know, this might be a simulation…speculation either way isn't "mostly true"…it can be "apparently mostly true"…but not "mostly true".
Yes. And so we arrive at 'Cogito ergo sum'. If you wanna believe you're a Boltzman Brain running elaborate simulations on yourself be my guest. But that proposition is not more 'apparently mostly true' than: I am me, you are you, we have imperfect knowledge but we can agree on a reality that seems mostly true most of the time.
