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02 Dec 2008 01:53 pm

The Nightmare Of Total Recall

Der Spiegel profiles a woman who has perfect episodic memory:

People say to me: Oh, how fascinating, it must be a treat to have a perfect memory," she says. Her lips twist into a thin smile. "But it's also agonizing."

In addition to good memories, every angry word, every mistake, every disappointment, every shock and every moment of pain goes unforgotten. Time heals no wounds for Price. "I don't look back at the past with any distance. It's more like experiencing everything over and over again, and those memories trigger exactly the same emotions in me. It's like an endless, chaotic film that can completely overpower me. And there's no stop button."

It's a kind of mini-version of the hell of immortality. Forgetting and dying are as integral to being human as remembering and living. And yet we cannot cherish the relief of death or the gift of receding memory. That's how far our society has strayed from true Christianity (and how far the pro-life fetishists have migrated from the message of Jesus.)

(Hat tip: Frauenfelder)

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