CSflim

You have been given a choice:
You can recieve permenant, total, and irrevisible amnesia now, but then be released to lead the rest of your natural life. Or you are given some arbitary short length of time (say a week) to live with your memories intact, after which you will die.

(Just to less complicate the issue, we can assume that the very basic knowledge you posees will not be lost. You will still have language and a knowledge of basic social behaviour etc. Just no "personal" memories). Also don't get caught up in the fact "if I know when I am going to die, I could do whatever I want to now". I want to steer clear of these irrelevant consequences. Lets just say, for the sake of arguemnt, that you won't remember making your decision, after you are released to live out your final week. Your final week will be just like any normal week in your life...you won't be going out in a spectacular bang!

Now this might seem like a very bizarre question. And it does have a point behind it. I am still formulating an argument based around this. But for now, I just want to see people's initial reactions.

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Johnny Rotten

I'd go with a mental reset over death with all my memories. Permanent forgetfulness, however, would make it a much tougher choice. I'd hate to be like that wreck in Memento. That's not living.

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CSflim

No, it's not a Memento situation. The opposite actually. You lose all of your previous memories, but afterwards, you function as normal.
A "mental reset" as you said.

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Moonduck

Death. PErmanent, irreversible, total loss of personal memories is the exact same thing as death as it is the utter loss of Self. What difference is there except that this meat shell that you inhabit keeps on metabolizing?

If it is total, then you would have a large group of people (your family and friends) deeply hurt by your complete lack of recognition, and you would feel zero emotion towards them as you cannot recall them. Better that you die after a week to set your affairs straight and cut your life off cleanly. To know that you will continue as some odd phantom, as nothing more than an aberration on your loved ones' lives would pain me more than the idea of death.

Like I said, a clean end with closure as opposed to lingering emotional torture with no hope of recovery for those I care about.

Jasmar

amnesia, I would still be who i am and still have the same personality, I just wouldn't know anything about myself, Itd almost be a fresh start at life

chavos

i would feel that they're pretty equal choices...i'm torn. on one hand, i have faith that in that week, i will accomplish good in this world. i do not know if i will accomplish any good after this memory reset...i could become a total asswipe.

but, i hold that life is inheriently good, and that there is value in it, no matter what. i think i would choose the amnesia, and hope for the best...but i would grieve that choice.

papermachesatan

I'm going to have to go with moonduck on this one.. no need to subject my family to continual pain.

cowlick

Amnesia
I would get to experience life. That's what I am doing today. Experiencing life. In many senses there would be no change. I would have no memory of the past, thus I would have no feeling of loss.

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daydream

I think I would go for the losing my memory choice... Although it'd be terrible to lose all of my memories esp the really great ones... I'd rather be able to stay on this Earth and live the rest of my life with the people I love...you may say that if I don't REMEMBER that I love them then what's the point? But I don't think my true feelings would be erased cause I think that's something that I believe comes from the soul.

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DownwardSpiral

Amnesia, in my opinion.

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firebirdta

I thought about this question quite a bit and I ended up with a "Don't Know." Death is scary because it's a mystery. Fear of the unknown. However, having that "mental reset" would definitely be like a death. I mean, I suppose that it would be possible to live a fulfilling life, but would I want to? I can't decide.

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Mr. Spacemonkey

I would choose death. I just couldn't stand losing all my personal memories that i've had. I know that after i did it i wouldn't remember making that choice but i still just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Also I believe in an afterlife.

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Eviltree

I would choose amnesia. Yes, you're memories would be wiped clean. But you could start fresh. It would be similar to being born again. You could experience everything again. You could begin an entirely different life.

giblfiz

Amnesia, selecting death is sort of like selecting a death sentence for a stranger. Instead of killing strangers I prefer to give them a really cool "plainscape: torment" style puzzle.

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meff

Death.

I dunno what I would do if I suddenly didn't know that my wife, was my wife, and other things. That's a quite scary question really, because I wonder if my alter 'me' would fall into love with her again.. What if the alter 'me' wouldn't like her anymore?

Creepy just thinking.

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Shyla Loral

I wouldn't want the amnesia, I'd prefer death. I also would prefer the same option if presented with the option of immortality, but with no chance of death;like you could get hit by a bus, and still not die. I would prefer death, because total immortality without the option of death is just too scary.

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Meff r0x

yournamehere

"Give me Liberty, or give me . . . . .Wait a minute - where the hell am I? Who are you people? What's with the rope?"

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raeanna74

Death. My memories are what make me. Without memories I don't find a purpose to continue living. Every day I'm making memories with my family and my daughter. I wouldn't be any benefit to her either without my memories. They are the lessons I've learned in life. I would be dooming myself to repeat all my same mistakes again because I'm still the same person with the same desires and yet no lessons to remember. I personally think it would be selfish for me to choose amnesia I have nothing to pass on to my family and friends and only LIFE as it were to live for myself.

This question reminds me of the book called "The Giver" Newberry Medal winner. The whole basis of the story is that there is a community of people who have no memory of the past and only one of them is responsible to carry those memories. As the young boy in the story is being given the memories that the previous "Giver" held he begins to realize how empty life is without memories even though they be of death and pain. The contrast is what makes life so rich.

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Marie

Amnesia! It would be like a whole new start! In stead of a defenite ending...

You could be who ever you want to be! You wouldn't know... so what!

I would really like to know how I would be. Just the same or would I have a completely different personality. Like raeanna74 says, you're merories make 'you'.
So how would friends and family react when it is 'you' but then it isn't... Really interesting!!

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bennyb

Very tough choice. I would probably choose death because life without memories is the same as death. Clean slate or not, its just being an empty shell in your middle ages, or for me, you teens. Too creepy to comprehend. I do not believe in the afterlife or reincarnation, it would just be an end, you would cease to exist either way, but with amnesia you would leave your human shell behind.

I dunno where this came from but the phrase, the body cannot live without the mind just popped into my head. My head might explode from this question so I'm going to take a breather.

CSflim

Morpheus tells that to Neo when he asks if you die in the Matrix do you die in real life.

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bennyb

Ah ha, thats the ticket. Which just goes to show how well done the matrix is. Alot of these issues that are talked about here are addressed in that movie

Kyo

There are certain details that have been left out that could influence the decision:

1) Exactly what would you forget? Would you forget how to walk as well? Or would you simply lose knowledge, but retain ability (I realize that the separation between those two is sometimes very slight)? Would you remember how to talk?

Less of a detail, but something to consider if you want scientific results:
2) How old are you?

My initial reaction to a question such as this (_something_ or death) is always to take the non-death option. The reasoning is simple - no matter how bad something gets, if you are still alive things can get better, things can change, unexpected and miraculous things could happen. No matter how slight the chance, the chance is there. But if you die, it's over, that's it. There are no second chances or miracles for the dead.

Of course, asking a woman whether she'd rather be raped and killed or just killed might result in a fairly one-sided vote for being killed without being raped. Nevermind the chance that someone could save her while the rape was occuring, many people simply don't think that chance is worth it.

I'm fairly young. I have, as they say, my whole life in front of me. My parents are still alive and working, so even though I'm only a year or so away from fully supporting myself, I still have people to fall back on (who, even though I wouldn't remember them, would remember me). I'm 'too young to die.'

Someone who is much older, who is perhaps already dying, to pick an extreme example, would probably prefer death to amnesia. I get the impression that they live for the people around them, since they have already lived their life of ambition and achievement. To suddenly forget everyone and everything in the last legs of your life could very easily be considered a fate worse than death.

CSflim

Yeah, I thought of that, which is why I explained that you would only lose personal memories. You would still remain a "functional" human...you can walk, talk etc. plus "general knowledge" would still be known to you...
To less complicate the issue, lets say that this basic knowlege isn't really your knownledge. It is a "blank template" injected into your brain after it has been wiped.

Quote:

Less of a detail, but something to consider if you want scientific results: 2) How old are you?

Um...I guess middle age. You (probably) still have an appreciable length of time before you will die.

Quote:

My initial reaction to a question such as this (_something_ or death) is always to take the non-death option. The reasoning is simple - no matter how bad something gets, if you are still alive things can get better, things can change, unexpected and miraculous things could happen. No matter how slight the chance, the chance is there. But if you die, it's over, that's it. There are no second chances or miracles for the dead.

Remember it's not stictly "something bad or death", it is "something bad now or death later", which I think makes all the difference.

Quote:

Of course, asking a woman whether she'd rather be raped and killed or just killed might result in a fairly one-sided vote for being killed without being raped. Nevermind the chance that someone could save her while the rape was occuring, many people simply don't think that chance is worth it. I'm fairly young. I have, as they say, my whole life in front of me. My parents are still alive and working, so even though I'm only a year or so away from fully supporting myself, I still have people to fall back on (who, even though I wouldn't remember them, would remember me). I'm 'too young to die.' Someone who is much older, who is perhaps already dying, to pick an extreme example, would probably prefer death to amnesia. I get the impression that they live for the people around them, since they have already lived their life of ambition and achievement. To suddenly forget everyone and everything in the last legs of your life could very easily be considered a fate worse than death.

My way of looking at is, is that you are the sum total of your memories, and past experiences. Although you may start a new life after your "amnesia", I would see it that that is a different person, merely inhabiting your body.

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Kyo

In all honesty, I used to think that way. But I'm beginning to shift into the pseudo-soul mindset, where each person has some kind of set core that doesn't change. I haven't worked out the exact details of where the core ends and 'acquired personality' begins, but at least it allows me to argue against trying to correct criminals rather than just executing them ;-).

CSflim

That's cool. I would be interested to hear more.
If you want to, post an elaboration in my thread The continuity of consciousness: An illusion?.

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filtherton

I choose amnesia. I'm young, hopefully i still have a full life ahead of me. Maybe i end up better off. Very likely i end up better off than dead.

Kyo

I just thought of something, perhaps it's nonsense, but intuition tells me otherwise. A 'different person' inhabiting your body - a different person than who you are now, but still you. A 'new you,' if you will. It's like multiple personality disorder, one personality at a time ... sort of? You are two different people. And if not, then who is the 'new person'? You may have forgotten who you are, but you have affected the lives of many people around you, and they all know. If I shot someone and then forgot I shot them, would it make an ounce of difference to the person I shot? I'm still me, whether I remember or not, whether I change or not.

Agree, disagree?

I'm still piecing together a more complete thought about this.

Stiltzkin

I would go with the amnesia if I get relocated to somewhere where no one knows me. My family would also have to think that I am dead. If such is not part of the scenario, then I would rather choose death. They say that memories are not fully lost, though, through amnesia. They are slowly recovered through time. If this is going to be a realistic scenario, then this has to be taken into consideration. So I'd probably take amnesia, because in real life amnesia (unfortunately, I am only capable of experiencing real life... or so my mind thinks), memory recovery is usually a possibility, even likely.

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MacGnG

i chose "Don't Know" because you didnt explain very well....

if you get amnesia: point, click, drag, new location, new folder contents.... but does everyone that has ever known "the old you" still think "hey where did he go?"

SOMETHING MANY OF YOU GUYS FORGOT.......
if you choose Death:
well that would fucking suck!

that is why i would not choose death; an arbitrary week in most everyone's life is not very exciting and i wouldn't want a random week to be my last

without knowing, you'd just be living normally and that would _waste?_ the choice of death. get what im saying?
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the problem with this question with no scenarios is that it is tooo vague...
personnaly, i don't think you could be soooo exactly precise in the scenario to let me make a real decision
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EDIT: i guess with much more clarification i could decide
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just my thoughts on the question and scenario

CSflim

Basically my question was pointing towards my belief that amensia and death are equivalent, when it comes to the "preseravtion of self".
I justed wanted to see what people's gut reactions were before posting this thread

So, the way I see it, amnesia is an equally bad fate as death, so the question becomes, death now, or death in a week.

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MacGnG

another week of the same ol' thing is nothing compared to the chance to start a new life and make it better.

so the choice is really
1. you are the same but you die really really soon and don't know it.
OR
2. you have a chance to become a better person; you are a new person.

but if you keep adding to the scenario and take into consideration the questions i asked i'd choose a shortened life because i wouldn't want to hurt all the people that i care about and care about me.

EeOh1

I think I'd go with death. I enjoy the company of my family and friends too much. Yes you could argue I'd make new friends, but I'd always wonder about my past. I think the gnawing question of my past would ruin my future and knowing now what kind of people I have in my life, I'd choose death. I think.

amonxiii

Why would you want death...?
You wouldn't remember anything anyway.

Speed_Gibson

describes an alzhiemer's patient all too well, especially when they are mostly physically capable and still capable of higher functions.

edit: I would choose amnesia, not trying to knock on heaven's door like Spike this early in life.

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Machfive

As far as I'm concerned, permanent amnesia and death are the exact same thing.

While the body continues intact with amnesia, one's self does not. That's the same thing as dying. While I'd wish my new self a happy life, I sure as hell don't want him to have it, because that would require giving up my own.

ARTelevision

Yes. Good point. In personal experience, there isn't any difference between the two.
This is an important point to consider. We identify with a continuous string of memories. That's who we think we are.
This ego of ours is what dies. It's what we consider so precious. We call it our life. This ego of ours. Who we think we are.
It's really a small and insignificant - mostly, perhaps entirely illusory entity.
I find great freedom in all this.
Thanks for raising the question.

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ForgottenKnight

Death. I believe in an after-life, so there's nothing to fear in death. Your memories and experiences are what makes you who really are. Without that, then what are you? Nothing. You would make new friends, but then you wouldn't remember anything personal. You'd wake up the next day feeling like you had no friends, no life. To feel that forever would be a horrible fate.

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fuzzix

Amnesia for sure. It would be interesting to get to know my family all over again, and probably set me off in a completely different direction.

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Xell101

Amnesia, I'd rather not know who I previously was than die in 7 days without being able to go out with a sense of self satisfaction in a job well done.