The Infinite Prison

Μusk

Μusk

kiwifarms.net
Joined
Jul 23, 2020
This idea spawned from the posts I've seen that say things such as "I wish I could watch this from the beginning as if I had never seen it before again".

In the future, when there exists brain interfaces that allows you to not only augment your brain functions, but control your memories as well, what would happen to those who erase their memories only to watch the same content again and again and again? Would they doom themselves to an infinite sedation?, consumed by satisfaction with no staleness to come? Would you be willing to discard everything of your life to watch/experience the same content an indefinite amount of times, each attempt as joyful as the last?
What are the future implications of such technology? Will the whole of humanity ultimately end up living in a farm, in a perpetual state of satisfaction, with a few individuals or machines managing the whole operation?
 
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Humans are fairly unusual in that we're very neotenic apes. Like dogs are to wolves, they never really mature and neither do we.

One of the results of neoteny is that we're more curious, more playful as adults than other animals.

This really helped after the ice age to proliferate and quickly spread out our species, because of our wanderlust and curiosity.

Of course because we are like this, we consider it to be good like this. But there is really no reason for it to be that way.

On top of that, we already want to consume the same thing over and over again. People turn up much more for season 9 of Succesful show X, based on a book, than they do for any random video.

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Now to finally address your thought experiment more directly. If it were possible, why confine it to consuming content? You could have the same experience over and over again, assuming it was good for everyone involved. There are a couple of days in my life that I wouldn't have minded to experience over and over again and if I'm any good judge of emotions, she would have thought the same.
 
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Wasn't that a plotpoint in Rick and Morty? Anyways what's the point, it's easier to kill a person that keeping him sustained inside an infinite memory loop.
 
Considering the times we live in, I'd be more worried about this tech being mandatory and state controlled. Imagine someone else screwing without your head without you knowing.
 
wtfNeedSignUp said:
Wasn't that a plotpoint in Rick and Morty? Anyways what's the point, it's easier to kill a person that keeping him sustained inside an infinite memory loop.
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When I use the term Prison, I'm not referring to people being held captive by others but being slaves to their own primal desires. The infinite memory loop of experiencing, wiping away, and experiencing again will ultimately end up trapping people in the same pattern forever as they'll feel as though they don't need anything else for fulfillment at that point.
 
Muskrat said:
When I use the term Prison, I'm not referring to people being held captive by others but being slaves to their own primal desires. The infinite memory loop of experiencing, wiping away, and experiencing again will ultimately end up trapping people in the same pattern forever as they'll feel as though they don't need anything else for fulfillment at that point.
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But things always change. You need to work, sleep, eat... and the world evolves around you so there's new stuff all the time. Not to mention that society itself preassures you to go into the next big thing all the time. Basically there are too many factors to really be stuck in a loop.
For example, I loved Morrowing but I doubt I'd love it as much now that I have less time and played games with better gameplay (even though the game world is still top notch).
 
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