Thread: First person perspective memory loss

I have noticed something about when you completely cannot recall a certain event of your life. It's like it never happened. Like you skipped that portion of your life.

Ever had surgery? It's like that. You go into the surgery. You get an IV put in you, and some guy says something to you, and suddenly you wake up in a different room. The surgery took two hours, not that you'd notice, because you were drugged out, therefore you remember none of it, so it's like you skipped ahead.

It makes me wonder...does being so aware because of our knowledge of lucid dreaming and consciousness make us less prone to Alzheimer's disease? This cannot really be determined by a third person perspective. Only an individual can determine whether or not they themselves would get the disease. Why? Because if I was going to get Alzheimer's, I would suddenly be sitting in an old folks home not knowing where I was, or who anyone else was, or even who I am. I would be there at THIS VERY INSTANT (from my perspective). Obviously from any of your perspectives, I would be sitting here typing, and it'd be obvious that I must go through the years up until I get the disease.

But from my perspective, none of this would be happening, because I wouldn't remember it. Fascinating. I'm not even sure where I'm going with this. It's just something I've noticed. You don't really notice. Just like sleep. Unless you remember your dreams, you simply wake up in the morning seemingly the instant you fell asleep. It's like that 8 hours never happened. But if someone sat there and watched you sleep, sure enough 8 hours would go by.

So if you were going to at some point in your life lose your memory completely, you would have already lost it. You would not be reading this, because in your mind it never happened. Isn't that nuts? I thought of that once when I was high, naturally.

Interesting idea! I think it's commonly accepted that regular mental stimulation is a good way to prevent it from happening. Whether said mental stimulation occurs while awake or asleep probably doesn't really make a difference. Then again, can't you potentially be mentally stimulated in the non-lucid dreams that you don't remember? If so, then I don't know how much of a difference the LD's will make.

With surgery, I've found that it wasn't so much that you close your eyes, and poof, you're awake in a different room. It's more like you feel like you slept real deep for a few hours. Like, when you go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning, you don't remember anything, but you have some kind of a feel for how much time you've been sleeping for.

The thing is you can remeber stuff, and then forget it then remeber it later, and it can be crystal clear one moment and fuzzy the next only to come back again.

Of course why stop with Alzheimer. The same thing can be said when you die. You lose all memories and you fade away as if your never existed. Though you could make the arguement that souls are real and you never really forget anything, and that would be a really nice thing. Of course theres no way to ever know that as you will either never forget or you will forget and the point is meaningless.

Ah ha, this is an idea I have pondered with myself for quite sometime. Its a hard idea to explain.

That makes me think about Death quite a bit... it reminds me of something I saw in House. A guy had his brain zapped because of a condition (which it later turned out he didn't have). All of his life, disappeared. All memories, gone. It was as if his life started at that moment, though he knew it didn't. It all happened, but he can't even imagine it happening. It happened, but its like it didn't. If when we die our brain's shut down completely, we would thus lose all memories. Thus, based on that, why can we "remember" this 'Now?'

It really is strange to think about. I can't imagine that. But that's my theory...if you were to lose your memory, your life would start there at that moment and you'd be there right NOW. It's a bit nuts to think about.

So when we die it makes me think there is something after...cause if there wasn't, we would die, lose all our memories, and from our perspective, this would have never happened and we'd be there now.

The way I see this is, I don't think thats accurate because alzhiemer's comes and goes in waves. Sometimes you'll be perfectly lucid and other's you'll be completely out of it. Basicly, IMO, it seems that having your memory even some of the time, would still be enough for you to be here right now, and not sitting in your rocker right now...

That said, this brings up another, even crazier thought...
How do I know your even here right now, I know I am... but you could be on some sort zombie autopilot right now and I couldn't tell the difference. vice versa. How do any of us know that anyone else is truely self conscious? For all I, and anyone else, know... I/you could be the only truely "aware" person...

How do you prove someone elses consciousness? It seems like an easy question, but its really not.