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would you rather be tortured for an hour and but have your memory of that hour wiped later, or be tortured for a minute but have lucidity and good memory of it later? (self.wouldyourather)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by dandelion to c/wouldyourather@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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fucked up question, I know - but ultimately it's a question about suffering and experience of personhood - did "you" really experience the torture for an hour if you don't remember it later?

What about the hour where you were awake and present, before the memory is wiped? How much does that suffering matter? Does the fact that after the torture you won't remember override the suffering you will experience in the present during the torture, relative to suffering you will remember the rest of your life?

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[-] dandelion 1 points 1 day ago

I think PTSD's mechanism involves memory, but for the sake of the experiment let's just guarantee the hour doesn't result in mental or physical injury - the difference is really meant to be that you can either:

  • experience an hour of torture and forget, or
  • experience a minute of torture and not forget

I'm trying to drive the choice to be about the experience and whether the promise of forgetting at the end is enough to make you willing to go through the experience of an hour of torture.

this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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Would You Rather

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