I get the exact opposite take on this, but I agree even with a stronger form of your statement to say that “ALL memories are wiped and you live again” (my conditions would require this to read “you continue to live”) is marginally more desirable than “you die and that’s it”.
So continuity of consciousness can exist outside of memories? How so? Why is memory-wiped you different than any random memory-wiped person? How can physical continuity do that?
I see factual memory as a highly changeable data set that has very little to do with “self”. As I understand it (not an expert in neuroscience or psychiatry, but experience working with neurologically impaired people) the sort of brain injuries which produce amnesia are quite distinct from those that produce changes in personality, as reported by significant others, and vice versa. In other words, you can lose the memories of “where you came from” and still be recognized as very much the same person by those who knew you, while you can become a very different person in terms of disposition, altered emotional response to identical stimuli relative to pre-injury status, etc (I’m less clear on what constitutes “personality”, but it seems to be more in line with people’s intuitive concept of “self”) with fully intact memories. The idea of a memory wipe and continued existence is certainly a “little death” to my thinking, but marginally preferable to actual death. My idea of consciousness is one of passive reception. The same “I”, or maybe “IT” is better, is there post memory wipe.
If memory is crucial to pattern identity then which has the greater claim to identity: The amnesiac police officer, or his 20 years of dashcam footage and activity logs?
still be recognized as very much the same person by those who knew you
Yes or no, will those who knew them be able to pick them out blind out of a group going only on text-based communication? If not, what do you mean by recognize? (If yes, I’ll be surprised and will need to reevaluate this.)
If memory is crucial to pattern identity then which has the greater claim to identity: The amnesiac police officer, or his 20 years of dashcam footage and activity logs?
The officer can’t work if they’re completely amnesiac. They can’t do much of anything, in fact.
As to your main point: it’s possible that personality changes remain after memory loss, but those personalities are themself caused by experiences and memories. I suppose I was assuming that memory wiped would wash away any recognizable personality. I still do. The kinds of amnesia you’re referring to presumably leave traces of the memory somewhere in the brain, which then affects the brain’s outputs. Unless we can access the brain directly and wipe it ourself, we can’t guarantee everything was forgotten, and it probably does linger on in the subconscious; so that’s not the same as an actual memory wipe.
I believe there is a functional definition of amnesia, loss of factual memory, life skills remain intact. I guess I would call what you are calling a memory wipe a “brain wipe”. I guess I’d call what you are calling memory “total brain content”. If a brain is wiped of all content in the forest is Usul’s idea of consciousness spared? No idea. Total brain reboot? I’d say yes and call that good as dead I think.
I would say probably yes to the text only question. Again, loss of factual memory. But I don’t rate that as a reliable or valid test in this context.
So continuity of consciousness can exist outside of memories? How so? Why is memory-wiped you different than any random memory-wiped person? How can physical continuity do that?
I see factual memory as a highly changeable data set that has very little to do with “self”. As I understand it (not an expert in neuroscience or psychiatry, but experience working with neurologically impaired people) the sort of brain injuries which produce amnesia are quite distinct from those that produce changes in personality, as reported by significant others, and vice versa. In other words, you can lose the memories of “where you came from” and still be recognized as very much the same person by those who knew you, while you can become a very different person in terms of disposition, altered emotional response to identical stimuli relative to pre-injury status, etc (I’m less clear on what constitutes “personality”, but it seems to be more in line with people’s intuitive concept of “self”) with fully intact memories. The idea of a memory wipe and continued existence is certainly a “little death” to my thinking, but marginally preferable to actual death. My idea of consciousness is one of passive reception. The same “I”, or maybe “IT” is better, is there post memory wipe.
If memory is crucial to pattern identity then which has the greater claim to identity: The amnesiac police officer, or his 20 years of dashcam footage and activity logs?
Yes or no, will those who knew them be able to pick them out blind out of a group going only on text-based communication? If not, what do you mean by recognize? (If yes, I’ll be surprised and will need to reevaluate this.)
The officer can’t work if they’re completely amnesiac. They can’t do much of anything, in fact.
As to your main point: it’s possible that personality changes remain after memory loss, but those personalities are themself caused by experiences and memories. I suppose I was assuming that memory wiped would wash away any recognizable personality. I still do. The kinds of amnesia you’re referring to presumably leave traces of the memory somewhere in the brain, which then affects the brain’s outputs. Unless we can access the brain directly and wipe it ourself, we can’t guarantee everything was forgotten, and it probably does linger on in the subconscious; so that’s not the same as an actual memory wipe.
I believe there is a functional definition of amnesia, loss of factual memory, life skills remain intact. I guess I would call what you are calling a memory wipe a “brain wipe”. I guess I’d call what you are calling memory “total brain content”. If a brain is wiped of all content in the forest is Usul’s idea of consciousness spared? No idea. Total brain reboot? I’d say yes and call that good as dead I think.
I would say probably yes to the text only question. Again, loss of factual memory. But I don’t rate that as a reliable or valid test in this context.