Tag Archives: philosophy of mind

Memory Lost

Tonight before Derek fly back to San Jose, he came over to have another chat. It’s always a pleasure to talk with your old friend. Every time when we see each other, the conversation will somehow lead back to the old school days. We were talking about how are our classmates doing these days and a name pop up. This name is associated with a famous incident, the well known story of someone shitting his own pants. The version Derek had remember is totally different from mine, and yet according to him, I was one of the key person in that incident. He can even recall what had I said back then. That poor guy should have listened to my words and go to toilet at once. Instead he wait until matter goes from bad to worse and get totally out of control. Since that event, he is virtually isolated by every classmate and end up leaving the school without graduated. The problem is that I really have no memory of what had happened, not even a single trace of it. Since Derek had just mention this incident to some other old friends and they validated this version, I assume it must be the truth. I found I don’t have much of my own memory in high school, most events are reconstructed from conversation with other old friends. Sometimes I wonder, if a person is depicted of his memory, how can he confirm his own continuity?