If you know of the existence of such tech before “tomorrow”, one way would be to have a secret-name that no one else knew. That is, create a word that means “a secret name referring to me that no one else knows that I use to ID myself” and keep thinking about it every day to put that word into your semantic memory so that the mind-wipe won’t touch it.
--edit2: this may be formally impossible, I don’t actually know. If anyone can demonstrate this I’d be very appreciative.
The case of Clive Wearing is the most profound memory loss I know of. He has a diary in which he keeps recording “NOW I AM AWAKE FOR THE FIRST TIME” and such as he keeps finidng himself conscious, and then crosses the previous entry because he thinks someone else wrote it. However, he retains knowledge of his wife (See the “hello darling I love you” entry in the diary) and how to play music.
Many of our most important memories (such as Clive Wearing’s wife) become intrinsic features of our semantic knowledge. He would have remembered “wife” even independantly of any particular memory he had of her because she would be a fact about his world, in the same sense that he’d remember “chair”. That’s not to say that those memories can’t be removed, but unless somehow targeted semantic dementia will also remove general knowledge about the world and word meanings.
Your character would only have Retrograde amnesia whereas Clive has both types of amnesia simultaneously, so if you wish to insert realism I’d suggest following the citations and reading some of the case studies. I imagine a villain might add capgras or prosopagnosia to the mix to circumvent recognition of loved ones.
If you know of the existence of such tech before “tomorrow”, one way would be to have a secret-name that no one else knew. That is, create a word that means “a secret name referring to me that no one else knows that I use to ID myself” and keep thinking about it every day to put that word into your semantic memory so that the mind-wipe won’t touch it.
The case of Clive Wearing is the most profound memory loss I know of. He has a diary in which he keeps recording “NOW I AM AWAKE FOR THE FIRST TIME” and such as he keeps finidng himself conscious, and then crosses the previous entry because he thinks someone else wrote it. However, he retains knowledge of his wife (See the “hello darling I love you” entry in the diary) and how to play music.
Many of our most important memories (such as Clive Wearing’s wife) become intrinsic features of our semantic knowledge. He would have remembered “wife” even independantly of any particular memory he had of her because she would be a fact about his world, in the same sense that he’d remember “chair”. That’s not to say that those memories can’t be removed, but unless somehow targeted semantic dementia will also remove general knowledge about the world and word meanings.
Your character would only have Retrograde amnesia whereas Clive has both types of amnesia simultaneously, so if you wish to insert realism I’d suggest following the citations and reading some of the case studies. I imagine a villain might add capgras or prosopagnosia to the mix to circumvent recognition of loved ones.