Phyo Kyaw Week 14 - Dangers of Memory
Now, we've talked about the importance of memory and why it is so vital for us humans. But with this comes dangers as well. The dangers of losing said memories. Imagine you live your whole life and in a flash of a second it all goes away. You yourself wouldn't even know that you lost your memory. Would you even know your own identity?
The thought of this frightens me. Imagine having to rediscover your whole life all over again after many years of experience. Now imagine instead of you being the one losing your memory, it's a loved one. Can you imagine your own mother not knowing who you are? Imagine she just stares at you blankly. I don't think I would be able to handle that. Memory is a complex topic that scares me as a person.
Now come along with me to another branch of memory. What if memory had an expiration date? Once a certain amount of time has passed, you lose those memories. That would be crazy to think about. You would be living in the present and the present only. Now another thing to think about.
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| Image from Google |
What if you had your entire life's memory from the start of your birth. You basically knew how your life would turn out. Would you even risk changing your life events? In every movie I've watched with these scenarios, a small change always leads to some world-ending war. Now I'm curious if it did actually happen would small little decision changes actually matter?
But, at the end of the day, this is all speculation and my brain is fried from thinking about all this so I'm going to stop. But in your spare time, ponder a bit about what memory really is.
Hello! I like the questioning and contemplative tone that you took with this week’s blog as you explore all the different ways that memory affects us. It's really scary to think that one day, because of a gradual decline of our mental states or because of an accident, we can lose sense of who we are and what we've been through. I literally cannot fathom it because there has never been a moment in my life when I felt that lack of memory. It's also heart-wrenching to see family members and people we love also go through that. That is why I think it is so important that people savor the memories that they have with their families and really try to live in the moment because as we get older it will be harder to conceptualize those little moments. But, of course, there are always small little things that we are going to forget like what we ate on April 1 in 2019, but there are some people who are able to recall things impeccably like that. Because we are on this trend of considering types of different memories and hypotheticals, it reminds me of people with photographic memory. I don’t know much about it, but I find it incredibly interesting to imagine what it would be like to remember everything. It must be like a different world.
ReplyDeleteHello Phyo! The first thing I noticed is that we both chose the same image for our blogs. Great minds think alike I see! Jokes aside, your blog was really insightful. I actually think about this topic a lot. Like you, I have thought about the day that I (hopefully it never comes) may lose my memories. I cannot imagine not being able to recognize my favorite songs on the radio or the faces of my loved ones or my artwork or my writing or my clothes or anything that makes up my personality. Sometimes it makes me wonder how much of what I really like is just my attachment to it. My memory of it. If I were to lose all my memories and see the same hoodie, would I like it? Or would I hate it? It kind of puts me in an identity crisis. You mention such a good point about our own loved ones not being able to recognize us. That is a nightmare that haunts me to this day. I have thought about what it would be like to have someone who means the world to me not be able to know who I am or what they had done for me or what I mean to them. All of a sudden, I'm gone from their memory. Gone from their life. I never happened and I mean nothing. It's a really scary thought. You made me realize that life really is unpredictable and it's so real that these things can happen - Alzheimers or Dementia or any other cognitive deterioration is not fantasy, but they're real. It leads me to have this introspective moment where I wondered how much attention I was paying to the people that are important to me. The way I treat them. Because even though we don't have a guarantee of whether or not they will lose their memories, I want the memories of me that they will have to be positive and full of love. So that one day, maybe they get a flashback of me, whether or not they have any disability, and it exudes the same kind of love that I shared for them. Nicely done, and thank you.
ReplyDeleteHey Phyo, I really enjoyed your blog about the dangers of memory. Firstly, I really liked the way your wrote your blog. Your use of rhetorical questions throughout the article made me more engaged with your blog and kept me thinking about the dangers of memory. The thought of losing my memory also scares me. It is a main part why I'm afraid of getting older and possibly getting dementia. Not being able to recall anything from memory is definitely a scary concept, having all your memories suddenly vanish sounds terrible. This is why I believe we should cherish our memories. While it is rare, accidents can happen that can cause us to forget our memories, so cherishing our memories helps us appreciate them more. To answer the scenario you pose in the third paragraph, I think if memory had an expiration date, memories would be very valuable. I think people would ultimately spend their time living in the present, and would be trying to gain immediate pleasures. Overall, I really enjoyed your blog that pointed out the dangers of memory, and the various scenarios you posed.
ReplyDeleteAs a sci-fi fan, I really enjoyed reading your blog. I like to imagine situations like these, and fear also strikes me upon the thought of them. Sadly, what you speak of is actually true. Memory doesn’t specifically have a “time limit,” it fades away with certain diseases. For example, my grandma has dementia. Over time, she went from forgetting memories of our family to forgetting simple daily tasks. Luckily, she is still able to remember who she is, but not for long. I also like how you think about the repercussions of memory loss. You even delve into how tiny, intricate changes can drastically affect people’s lives. I like to think of it as time travel. Known as the “butterfly effect,” if someone travels back in time and does something they assume is a small change, it can completely alter the future timeline. Simple chain and reaction logic can be applied to memory, where if you alter one part of a memory, it acts as a catalyst for someone to remember something entirely different. I enjoyed reading your blog and hope to read more insights from you again.
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