Would You Rather...

You have a choice between two futures, and must select one. Which would you select and why?:

1) You will be given a lifetime of memories from another individual. You will not be able to forget any of the other person's thoughts, feelings, nor experiences, good or bad. When you recall them, it is as if they are your own thoughts, feelings and experiences. The transfer will take place over the course of a few seconds. You do not get to pick the individual whose memories will be transferred.

2) An exact copy of your memories to date will be passed on to another individual. They will not be able to forget any of your thoughts, feelings, nor experiences, so in a sense "you" will live forever. However, while you will retain your memories up to the point of transfer, you will no longer be able to retain anything new for more than 24 hours. Going forward, everyday when you wake up the last thing you will remember is the transfer.

I would vote to take the memories of somebody else. Maybe it would be a woman, so at least I could have some hope of being the only man on earth who understands something about them. Either way, I might benefit from his/her experiences.

I don't know about that Mike. Some people have terrible memories. What if you got the memories of some poor tortured person suffering from mental illness. Or now imprisoned in their own bodies with Lou Gehrig's disease or MS. Trade that for the memory of your wife and kids. Not a gamble I would ever go for.

I didn't realize I would have to give up my own. In that case, I'd keep my own.

Quote: Ayecarumba

1) You will be given a lifetime of memories from another individual. You will not be able to forget any of the other person's thoughts, feelings, nor experiences, good or bad. When you recall them, it is as if they are your own thoughts, feelings and experiences. The transfer will take place over the course of a few seconds. You do not get to pick the individual whose memories will be transferred.

The first option sounds like a movie from 40 years ago (also a remake). While he didn't get to pick the individual, he did get to reject some options and there was some attempt to find a candidate who had similarities to his life.

I never saw the original "Heaven Can Wait", but I did enjoy the Warren Beatty version. The second option was actually the plot from an episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise", but it is also based on some real folks I know who suffer from dementia.