(September 13, 2009 at 1:06 am)Eilonnwy Wrote:(September 13, 2009 at 1:02 am)theVOID Wrote: Putting it all down to chemicals oversimplifies a great deal, there is also the physical topology of the brain as well as genetic information in the genome that is known as a few different things, Carl Jung first dubbed them Racial memory and cultural memory, there is also Birth memory which is a memory acquired without sensory experience or remembering the way we do normally.
Memory can also be inherited through meiosis and mitosis, again related to cultural and racial memory.
I see what you're saying. I was oversimplifying, but the point was that it still all exists in the brain right? And so if it's permanently damaged and those genetic factors are ruined, then your sense of self is dead, right? Of course if certain genetic components can't be ruined without the actual body dying then maybe there is something of you in there, but I think if you permanently can't remember your past life and are different from your past personality, that past self is essentially dead.
Well what level of memory loss are you talking about? Complete loss would be imo like you are a newborn again, you have to learn to count, speak, read, write, develop motor skills etc and would end up developing a personality completely different to your previous one - i don't know if this is possible but in the hypothetical it would be the equivalent dying - but then passing your machine over to another personality in much the same way a different OS can be installed on a computer.
I wonder if multi-booting is a metaphor for schizophrenia...
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