Finalizing on our last module is memories. I feel like it’s kind of fitting because likewise memories are bittersweet and so is having our last module for this class. It’s very poetic. In our last two films, “Marjorie Prime” and “The Measure of Man”, I see that memories are things that cannot be recreated. Physically, these films show that it is possible, but the experiences and emotions of it cannot be cloned.
In “Marjorie Prime”, we see that Marjorie has interactions with a holographic version of her late husband to ease her Alzheimers. The recreation of Walter is based off of Marjorie’s memories, maybe the best version of him that she wants to reimagine. While he knows the objective versions of each story, its essence is not the same. She even adds her own twists to each stories because the hologram absorbs everything that has been told to it. Therefore, the memories are not accurate and very subjective based on who is talking to hologram Walter. I think this relates to “Good Remembering” with the concept of subjective truth. While each person’s memories may be different due to their own personal experiences, this makes every persons’ truth to only be true to themselves. However, that doesn’t make the memory any less significant. For example, in the scene where Marjorie is telling hologram Walter on when they got engaged. She added many different details that were not part of the original memory, but it doesn’t decrease its significance because it was important enough for her to recall despite her Alzheimers.
In “The Measure of a Man”, the concept of transferring Data’s memories into the starbase mainframe is similar to hologram Walter. Even though Data is a cyborg and it is similar to a hologram, his networks and consciousness is personalized to himself. His experiences shaped his own memories, whereas with hologram Walter, others’ memories shaped its own memories. The argument between whether Data is a conscious being or not is brought up between Maddox and Picard, which leads me to make the own question. Emotions and memories make up one’s consciousness, and while Data is a cyborg, he seems to possess memories that are full of emotion and his own experience. While Maddox thinks that Data’s memories are stored and will be able to be rebooted, Data disagrees. This is similar to the Reconstructivits view of Memories where they are build by the mind. With Data’s own consciousness, he seems to have to process his memories like we do and put meaning to it. It seems to be influenced by his emotions, environment, and other factors, instead of just objectively taking it like a computer. Even computers have emotions I suppose.
4 thoughts on “Memories Cannot Be Recreated”
Hi April,
I like that you are thinking about memory, as explored in the film, in terms of “good memory”—and why accuracy isn’t always the best way to measure memory. There is a lot of misremembering events and moments in the film—both intentional and unintentional. Tess and Jon, for example, disagree about what kind of ice cream they were eating when they talked about William James. In addition, as you note, we also see Marjorie intentionally misremembering Walter’s proposal, altering the film that they had been watching. This remains an important memory for her, but we see her change the details to, presumably, more fully reflect how she views herself and her relationship with Walter—or what she wanted that relationship to be like.
In terms of Data, you’re absolutely right that he experiences emotions—very powerful ones at that. But it seems like that is what differentiates him from other computers. His emotions, linked to his consciousness, are what makes him a person, not just a machine. If he loses the emotions that he associates with those memories, he risks losing himself. We might think about this in terms of his constructed of an autobiographical self.
Jessica Hautsch
Hi April,
I also noted that part of the movie when Marjorie tells Walter Prime that she would prefer the next time he recalls the memory of her proposal that it is to the movie Casablanca at the Velvet Rope (I believe). Walter knows it is not the truth, but, as you stated, he is a computer and uploads the information he is given, which makes me wonder if any of the memories he recalls for Marjorie is just a recreation of what she wanted life to be like, mixed in with truths.
Data though an android was not happy that he was considered a non-sentient being; or that Commander Bruce wanted to take him apart and download/upload his memory and consciousness into another machine. Data has learned over the years from living with sentient beings, and you can see from his reaction over being disassembled that he feels intense emotions about losing the real connection between just remembering his memories and connecting real feelings to them. It is like he has learned to process emotion like a sentient being.
cstiglianese
Hi Christina,
Yes! We see Marjorie actively rewriting her memories in order to create the version of the past that she prefers. But we also see that this can also happen organically. Consider, for example, the conversation between Tess and Jon about what kind of ice cream they were eating.
Jessica Hautsch
Hi April!
I really liked your discussion on the movie Marjorie Prime. You really connected the idea of good remembering to the movie, and I had not really thought of it before. I totally agree that depending on who it is memories are remembered different but like you said that doesn’t make it any less significant. I feel like that concept is also highlighted by how each prime seems to turn out depending on who they were made for. I feel like each prime is customized to that person’s memories as Walter prime was customized to Marjorie, so some aspects only really related to the memories Marjorie “remembered” like when he was talking about the proposal in the end. I feel like it just shows how unreliable memory can really be.
Alesha Gutierrez