Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
#1
I dunno about you folks, but I am really looking forward to this movie. It has one of the most interesting and original websites I have ever seen Absolutely no mention of the movie, just a mock up of the procedure used to erase painful memories.

It's got some kicking music, most noteably Mr. Blue Sky from ELO. Old timers might look back fondly... Or recoil in horror as they remember the 70s and all that came with it. Perhaps getting THOSE memories erased would be prudent.

About the erasure of painful memories, well, interesting concept, but something I would NEVER want to try. I have a lot of painful memories, but in betwixt the painful wincing there are bright flashes of goodness.

Jim Carrey seems like he is going to play a rather serious role in this film, something I always like seeing him do.

Now uh, what was I talking about... I can't seem to remember the point... **Wanders off**

A cookie to anybody that can catch the title reference.
All alone, or in twos,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.

And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad buggers wall.

"Isn't this where...."
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#2
Are they talking about Shock Treatment? It doesn't matter really, anyway. I guess I feel that unless your extremly suicidal, cognitive therapy is a better way to learn to cope with the past. Our experience is what makes us who we are. I have a co-worker who was treated that way, and is "normal" -- but they cannot remember anything that happened prior to being 18 years old. I think in some ways that is troubling for that individual. They are glad to be rid of the "horror" they experienced, but it was at the sacrifice of all their memories.
”There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

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#3
No, not shock therapy. Memory erasure. A fictional technology that actually isolates memories in the brain that you don't want and erases them. But there are some side effects of course.

The procedure basically turns your mind into a hard drive and wipes out bad sectors.

**Shudder**
All alone, or in twos,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.

And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad buggers wall.

"Isn't this where...."
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#4
But, its sort of the same thing, except without the detriment of losing all your memories.

But, I can't imagine a world with sane Van Gogh, or with the bland writings of a cheerful Fyodor Dostoevsky. I think pain gives a better perspective on pleasure, and our suffering better punctuates our joy.
”There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

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#5
Doc,Jan 26 2004, 09:32 AM Wrote:About the erasure of painful memories, well, interesting concept, but something I would NEVER want to try. I have a lot of painful memories, but in betwixt the painful wincing there are bright flashes of goodness.
I think I know too much bio-psych to enjoy this movie (that happens whenever I know enough to look at a piece of technological fiction and say "That could never happen" and have reasons why). It's been a while since I was in cognitive psych, or bio-psych, but the last I heard, the location of memory in the brain was not something that could be pin-pointed, therefore erasure would involve a lot of collateral forgetfulness... Hmm.

I'm trying to think of a good analogy that might apply, but using a pistol to try and destroy a single file in a filing cabinet comes to mind. However, I'm also reminded of a post a while back about whether the moderators on this board have the ability to delete a whole post, rather than editing/blanking it: the problem exists when that post has children in the thread, the board is not equipped to deal with orphan posts. Because so much of our processing of the present is based on our memories and our decision heuristics (based on prior experience-memories), our current and future personality is likely to change if part of our memory is deleted and left with an open hole.

The other reason I probably won't like this movie is because I generally don't like Jim Carrey's style of physical comedy. Ahh, who knows...

Certainly not me.
ah bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bob
dyah ah dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dth
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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#6
In the Warhammer RPG, that's how elves handle being immortal. Their minds get too full of memories, so they periodically purge some of them. (Like that embarassing time of getting drunk and...) The way it was written up (this was years ago in White Dwarf magazine), though, I seem to recall that it was a mental discipline they needed to learn and that they couldn't remove memories from before learning it. I suppose an elf who couldn't do this would eventually go starkers, since they don't forget the way humans do.

It also made it very difficult for them to work through their mental issues. So if a young elf developed a fear of spiders before learning the memory disciplines, then in later life they would just purge any unpleasant memories of encounters with spiders and keep the phobia in tact.

I thought it was a nice twist on elves, and not as odd as Greg Staffords.

-- CH
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