The march of time

[pcjunkie]

Time is a strange thing indeed. People often say "time heals all wounds", but really it is not a process of healing but a process of forgetting. Pain and pleasure fading away into the mist of memory. I was struck today by a metaphor in Kim Stanley Robinson's excellent book Blue Mars. One character, Michel Duval, returns from Mars to his home

Comments

[awmiller]

It's funny you should bring this up, because I've been thinking along these lines a lot as well. One thing I've really noticed as I've gotten older is how many different "me"s I can remember

[pcjunkie]

Oh definitely! In fact just a few weeks go I was acutely conscious of that fact. I had just been out at a networking happy hour with a bunch of people I didn't know and I was my half shy/half gregarious "around strangers" self and then I went and met up with two high school friends and I suddenly felt myself switch over to a much more personable self that comes out when I'm totally at ease with old friends.

I suppose it is natural. People often speak of wearing a variety of "masks" in public life, but I think it is more than just a mask, I sometimes feel like I am a different person in different situations.

Interestingly, there were a few other relevant sections dealing with the character Michel Duval (the ship's psychiatrist) over the course of the Mars trilogy. At one point the writing describes how he half-consciously called up different "programmed" selves in different situations. As if different people called a different patterned script of interaction. I think there is some truth to it.

[mcmiller]

Actually there's a lot of truth to it. Our memory is keyed to our biochemical mood markers at the time it is encoded. This allows us to encode multiple memories in the same "space" in our brain, but a different chemical key releases each one.

Meaning, depending on mood, you have an entirely different set of memories and are, therefore a different created self. (Some strong memories are tied to enough keys that they are always accessible.)