I think your confusion comes from an underspecification of the initial problem. Are only your memories reset, leaving more subtle personality or physical changes in place (Where did this tan come from?!? Why am I so relaxed?), or are your brain and body (and the rest of the world) entirely reset to the way it was before you went on the vacation? Really, the problem doesn’t specify what it means by “not remember the trip” well enough.
Part of what prevents me from understanding the riddle is that I believe vacations are worth more than the memories and photos: vacations change you.
Not if everything is reset back to the way it was!
I think the problem is meant to imply that there would be no way of ever telling you were on the trip; if you took a vacation and then afterwards your body and mind were reset to the way they were before the trip, as were everyone else’s, and all evidence of the trip was destroyed, would you take it? Your list of vacation features are all things that, to me, are implicitly implied to be reverted back to previous settings after the vacation.
Isn’t there a medical condition that makes people forget the waking period after they go to sleep, and so begin the next day with a mindset (progressively) falling behind the world?
Suppose you offer someone with this condition a half-day-long experience which would be as worthy (considering their actual goals) as anything they would ever have a chance of doing, if they agree to forget it immediately?
How much is half a day worth, if you only have a day, yet are reasonably certain you’all be around tomorrow?
Not if everything is reset back to the way it was!
He doesn’t say that though. Perhaps he meant to imply that. Let’s suppose he did, what does the experiencing vs remembering self model say about that?
You would start building memories. As you build them you’re servicing the experiencing self, and over the course of the vacation your remembering self can recall the things you did earlier in the vacation. Finally the vacation ends and time resets to before the vacation and it’s all gone, memories, sunburn. All of your new Facebook friends are strangers again.
If this is the problem he meant to specify then I’m still confused. Isn’t this vacation model a microcosm of life? One day it ends, and everything is gone. Do you still bother living it? Is talking about a vacation that resets just less likely to trigger existential angst in the audience than asking people to think about why they bother living?
A different but related question that (I feel) makes the dilemma clearer:
Is there any cause that you would be willing to be tortured for if you were assured that your memories of the torture (and all subconscious aftereffects) would be subsequently erased, but would be unwilling to be tortured for if there were no such assurance?
Introducing a hard mind reset would be a massively negative feature of the vacation, regardless of how I feel about having fun with activities that bring no future benefit.
I think your confusion comes from an underspecification of the initial problem. Are only your memories reset, leaving more subtle personality or physical changes in place (Where did this tan come from?!? Why am I so relaxed?), or are your brain and body (and the rest of the world) entirely reset to the way it was before you went on the vacation? Really, the problem doesn’t specify what it means by “not remember the trip” well enough.
Not if everything is reset back to the way it was!
I think the problem is meant to imply that there would be no way of ever telling you were on the trip; if you took a vacation and then afterwards your body and mind were reset to the way they were before the trip, as were everyone else’s, and all evidence of the trip was destroyed, would you take it? Your list of vacation features are all things that, to me, are implicitly implied to be reverted back to previous settings after the vacation.
Isn’t there a medical condition that makes people forget the waking period after they go to sleep, and so begin the next day with a mindset (progressively) falling behind the world? Suppose you offer someone with this condition a half-day-long experience which would be as worthy (considering their actual goals) as anything they would ever have a chance of doing, if they agree to forget it immediately?
How much is half a day worth, if you only have a day, yet are reasonably certain you’all be around tomorrow?
He doesn’t say that though. Perhaps he meant to imply that. Let’s suppose he did, what does the experiencing vs remembering self model say about that?
You would start building memories. As you build them you’re servicing the experiencing self, and over the course of the vacation your remembering self can recall the things you did earlier in the vacation. Finally the vacation ends and time resets to before the vacation and it’s all gone, memories, sunburn. All of your new Facebook friends are strangers again.
If this is the problem he meant to specify then I’m still confused. Isn’t this vacation model a microcosm of life? One day it ends, and everything is gone. Do you still bother living it? Is talking about a vacation that resets just less likely to trigger existential angst in the audience than asking people to think about why they bother living?
A different but related question that (I feel) makes the dilemma clearer:
Is there any cause that you would be willing to be tortured for if you were assured that your memories of the torture (and all subconscious aftereffects) would be subsequently erased, but would be unwilling to be tortured for if there were no such assurance?
Introducing a hard mind reset would be a massively negative feature of the vacation, regardless of how I feel about having fun with activities that bring no future benefit.