Memory Booths

Being on holiday is cool, I'm currently catching up on my reading and another of Derek Parfit's awesome thought experiments has me thinking.

The idea is that I could go on holiday and on my return home, go to a memory booth and have the memories stored on a disc. I could pass this disc on to friends who could visit the same store and have my holiday memories uploaded to their brain. Giving them the memory of my holiday. They would then have a memory of somewhere they hadn't been.

Possibility

The technical possibility of this process was never the question. It is merely a postulate to open a discussion on what constitutes a real memory. Can you have a memory of something that didn't happen? What is "the self" are we a "stream of conciousness"? What would happen to that stream if the memories that are the link backwards in time to "me" 5 years ago, 10 days ago are false?

My interest

While the above questions are interesting, what really caught my attention were the sensory questions raised by having someone else's memories. When I remember certain events, I do not just remember the details of an event, I remember the emotional context of the event. For example, if I remember an argument with someone close, I also remember the feelings of anger or hurt.

What would it be like to experience someone else's feelings? I love that first wave of heat when I get off a plane in a hot country. Other friends have told me they feel the same, would this friend? How stressed would the friend get trying to find a taxi and a hotel in a foreign country? How much better would I understand them after walking a mile in their shoes?

Imagine the first meal at the restaurant, it sticks in your friend's memory vividly due to the excellent prawns. However, you hate seafood... would you enjoy them in this memory? Or would there be some sort of conflict?

Imagine your holidaying friend does a bungee jump... What would their feeling of exhilaration be like? Do they experience excitement in the same way you do? Or is it a totally alien feeling? Imagine you are afraid of heights, could there be such a conflict that your mind rejects the memory? In the same way that the body recognises donated organs as foreign?

Social uses

Could the victim of a crime give their memory of the incident to their aggressor? Could this be a more effective form of rehabilitation?

I have had quite a nice day today - tomorrow I might even leave the house...