-The Fleet Of Stars, 13, p. 160.
"...Mister's head was exposed for a split second, and the sniper blew it off."
-John Grisham, The Street Lawyer (London, 2010), TWO, p. 20.
Late night reading: two sniper shots to the head.
"The human brain has a finite data-storage capacity; a thousand years will fill it."
-The Fleet Of Stars, 6, p. 82.
Therefore, an immortal would have to edit his memories and thus would attenuate his personality. This problem is addressed in different ways in Anderson's World Without Stars, The Boat Of A Million Years and For Love And Glory. Also, his Time Patrolmen live indefinitely prolonged lifespans but can electrocram, then delete, linguistic knowledge so can probably edit experiential memories.
Apart from cerebral storage of unconscious memories, think about our experience of conscious memories. (This argument comes from a book that I cannot find on the shelves right now.) The conscious mind forgets most of its experiences but retains enough key memories to maintain a sense of personal identity and continuity. However, if we were to live indefinitely - a million years, a billion years etc - then we would have more key memories to recall and would be able to recall each particular memory, among all the others, less and less frequently. Eventually, either earlier experiences would be completely forgotten or they would not be recalled often enough to maintain any personal continuity. A billion-year old being would surely have forgotten his early life and could hardly be described as the same person any more.
Maybe the answer is in World Without Stars where they delete most memories, leaving only enough for an individual to remember who he started out as and what he has done recently. His experience remains that of a much younger person.
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Anderson was compelled to fudge a bit the problem of memory/data overload for the "immortals" we see in THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS. Yes, if they lived that long, characters like Hanno suffered thru a period of insanity caused by memory overload. But we are never clearly told exactly WHAT was done enabling the survivors to get thru that bad time.
And I recall how, in WORLD WITHOUT STARS, one means of the "immortals" preserving a sense of personal continuity was by writing memoirs or autobiographies, presumably before sessions of memory editing/removing. Memoirs, plus a basic minimum of data not removed, would probably do for preserving that sense of continuity.
Ad astra! Sean
We don't actually know what the storage capacity of the brain is for long-term memory; it's apparent that nobody reaches it before they die of old age.
It's also apparent that there's a natural editing process whereby a lot of input into our brains is discarded. The old idea that you could remember everything is quite discredited.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, it's only a speculation by Anderson that a human brain could last a thousand years before suffering memory overload. We don't know if that is true because no one has lived that long.
A good point, we already naturally discard a lot of memories. And while some have very good memories, not all of us do.
Ad astra! Sean
I did not know that some memories get totally discarded. That does put the matter in a different light.
Makes sense. The brain is dynamic and adaptable. If it lacks space for old stuff, then it will discard it, not allow itself to be cluttered up.
Kaor, Paul!
And enough memories that matters for one's sense of personal continuity and identity should survive. Unless we we get senile or suffer from Alzheimer's.
Ad astra! Sean
Memory isn't a static "record". It's re-created and re-inscribed each time it's remembered.
This is one reason why it's highly malleable.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
There are some exceptions, tho. Like people who have eidetic or "photographic" memories.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: no, they just have more accurate creation and re-creation systems. At that, eidetic memory mostly applies to 'facts'.
Eg., Teddy Roosevelt could quote chapters of books verbatim decades after a single reading.
But if you remember things that -happen- to you -- the first time you fell in love, for example -- the memory is almost always going to be embarassingly wrong if you can check it against things like photographs or travel records.
Your mind edits, conflates, and rearranges things into "stories".
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Granted, what you said about how our minds "edits, conflates, and rearranges things."
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment