JulianMorrison comments on Eternal Sunshine of the Rational Mind - Less Wrong

7 Post author: Cyan 07 April 2009 03:10PM

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Comment author: knb 08 April 2009 04:39:03AM 3 points [-]

I resolve to not erase any memories. I want to never have to face the dilemma of wondering if something happened in my past that I had redacted. The only way to protect myself from this possible stressful situation is to believe I am not the kind of person who would ever tamper with my memories. (The "Golden Age" novels have a good depiction of the possible problems associated with discovering that you are the kind of person who has his/her memories redacted.)

Maybe I'm reaching here, but there also seems to be a parallel between the process of resolving to one-box in Newcomb's problem and that of resolving to not redact in an Eternal Sunshine scenario. It is the act of resolving, of making oneself the kind of person who one-boxes, or non-redacts, that generates the benefits, not taking the one box or actually refusing to redact memories.

Comment author: JulianMorrison 08 April 2009 09:41:08AM 0 points [-]

You already erase most of the memories of a normal uneventful day, and only retain lossy-compressed cues of what you do remember.

Comment author: knb 08 April 2009 03:27:48PM *  2 points [-]

Right, but the kind of memories people would redact are specifically things they can't forget. Presumably these are very important things, which might have practical implications on my life.