Memory
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The joint ownership and the vicarious experience of the memory


* Shared memory and vicarious experience

What occurred during the encephalon dive into KOS-MOS's mainframe was a 
reconstruction phenomenon of the memory of the divers.

The reconstructed shared "memory" actualized from the memory donors (Shion, 
Momo, and Jr), as well as the bystanders (Allen, chaos, and Ziggy). However, it 
was not something that involved emotion.

Memory, in effect, is subjective story-like information of the personal 
experience of the person, himself. The reconstruction of the "memory" that 
occurred during the encephalon dive, in a strict sense is not said to be a 
"shared memory"; it does not go beyond "vicarious experience of a situation".

What became the setting of the vicarious experience was something that the 
memory donors had in common-- Miltia of 14 years ago.

From Shion's memory came the scene of the interaction with her father in front 
of the Acute Neurosis Treatment Facility. And then the scene in the interior of 
the facility where Realians fused together as if eating each other. From Jr's 
memory came the scene of the wild running of the URTVs in the Miltian Conflict. 
Including the appearance of Gaignun and Albedo of that time. From Momo's memory 
came the scene of the end of Professor Joachim Mizrahi at the U-TIC 
Organization's central tower, Labyrinthos.

The memory donors, as well as the bystanders, vicariously experienced these 
scenes as if they were some incident that unfolded before their eyes, while 
maintaining their present consciousness as is. The memory donors' sensations of 
that time are not transmitted in whole-- it is an objective scene where only 
the stage was reconstructed.

The "shared memory", which was exchanged between Shion and Andrew who was on 
the verge of death, is something that actualizes only because of the sharing of 
emotional experience that accompanies feelings.

It is a personal experience that is shaken by emotion. When sharing the memory 
of that experience, one does not view the personal experience objectively; 
instead, one reacts to it subjectively. Even if that is also something that 
differs from his own emotion, he is dragged into the emotion of the [original] 
experience-er. Thus is shared memory.

That means, the shared memory from the technology of the encephalon dive is 
said to be something that does not match up to the synchronous communication 
between Shion and Andrew. But, regarding the vicarious experience of the 
memory, it is something that has a high degree of freedom, being extremely 
real.

* A heart that rejects the past

Lost recollections, or those that merely do not rise above the surface of the 
consciousness, are not concluded to have disappeared.

This can be explained by the memory lapse system of the human brain. The three 
stages of memory are: learning input, "memorization"; remembering, "retention"; 
and thought extraction, "recall". The matter that is concerned with 
memorization are the perception neurons, which become the entrance for 
information. The matter that is concerned with retention is the hippocampus. 
The matter that is concerned with recall is the frontal lobe. About the 
function and role of each [stage], they are continually being brought to light. 
However, in the case of memory lapse, which stage, which portion is it that 
indicates a non-functioning state?

As for the current state of the memory that is sealed and asleep at the bottom 
of Shion's heart, it is considered that the problem lies in the affore-
mentioned "recall" stage. Evidenced by her memories that were extracted due to 
the encephalon dive along with the memory that was recalled with the flashback, 
there is no doubt that there was being "retention".

Memory that is retained over a long period of time is called long-term memory. 
Short-term memory that is supplied by the cerebral cortex, similar to how it is 
recorded in computer RAM, is in a temporary storage state, and vanishes when 
the power is cut. Meanwhile, long-term memory that is supplied by the 
hippocampus, similar to how it is recorded on a harddisk, can continue to be 
retained indefinitely.

The reason for the failure in recall of these long-term memories is the 
following two possibilities. The first possibility is "failure of memory 
retrieval". It is the so-called, "having been forgotten". For some reason or 
another, when the brain is in a state where it cannot retrieve memory, this 
phenomenon comes forth. The second possibility is "suppression". {rephrased for 
clarity, may be somewhat incorrect}: According to Freud's theory, it is 
disadvantageous and even harmful to oneself when he acts completely such that 
he refuses to actualize all the things that he doesn't want to remember, the 
things that chase after him in his subconscious. Due to this, he diminishes his 
futile psychological toil, and attempts to bring about mental efficiency. It is 
a way of thinking that perceives psychology economically. Shion's case is 
expected to have a high possibility that it is the latter case of 
"suppression".

* Kirschwasser memory

The memory of the Kirschwassers, which was received by Momo, was not a real 
image from within the memory that the Kirschwassers personally witnessed. It is 
considered that the images were something visualized by Momo for the sake of 
recognizing the personal experience of the Kirschwassers. The reason for this 
is because the Kirschwassers themselves, who were the personal experience 
vessels of that memory, were also appearing in the memory image.

The Kirschwassers, Momo, and the 100-series cross-observational Realians are 
existences that possess a single psychological domain. Individual terminals 
carry out the experience of a particular case and upload them to a mainframe, 
and this making-into-joint-ownership preserves the data by way of possible 
states. For the sake of recognizing the information that was uploaded, an 
individual terminal gives processing treatment within the brain into a form 
that is easy to comprehend. The influx of memory information from the 
Kirschwassers to Momo is not something that passed through the mainframe, but 
is a concatenation of a fellow terminal. For the sake of recognizing and 
understanding the information that came from the influx, it wasn't a 
reproduction of a pure memory image-- it is considered that Momo reconstructed 
the information through a form that included a remnant of the memory subject.

Probability of unchanging corresponding phenomena... 90.45566%

p.123. Encephalon (Development of KOS-MOS)
p.081. Data Preservation Form (Culture)

top image: "This place-- it's the place I saw from the hospital window."
middle image: "Every single one of them's infected..."
bottom image: "And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life… …was 
cast into the lake of fire!" 

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Translated by jinxhaas.

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