Paradigms of human memory

[Amake]

How old were you when you first thought you might dream your future and wake up and still be as old as you were then? Because, presumably, you'll sometimes think back on that realization and wonder if that's what's happening, and feel like you may wake up to find out that your life since then has been a dream.

I was five or six, I can't remember which. But it means there's a part of me that's considering the possibility I'm still five or six and the entire world as I know it is a dream. I could wake up and be back in the village and know all these things I still don't have the prefrontal cortexal development or hormone production to understand, and some other things I could understand and mistakes I wouldn't have to make. Don't eat the yellow snow, use birth control, all that sort of thing. I definitely would get on the Internet earlier and spend more time there. What would you do?

The reason I'm asking is because I've decided the term for this phenomenon is "Memory overflow in the Matrix".

(If you don't have any idea what this is about, watch the beginning of Almost Famous.)

[Kerensky287]

The fact that the real world would almost certainly turn out to be completely different from the one I know and (sometimes) love means that I'm not sure how to answer this question.

But assuming it IS a sort of prophetic dream thing, I'd just do my best to warn people about all the major disasters I can remember. I'd also cruise through school pretty easily and spend a whole bunch of time just being a little prodigy in whatever field I choose.

There aren't a lot of fundamental decisions I would rethink, but who knows? Maybe with the perspective I have now, I'd have gone in a different direction with some decisions I've forgotten I made.

[Overcast]

I don't have this compulsion, but if it were to happen I think I'd lead my life pretty similar to now, only I would try to prepare more to fund my future. I wasn't aware how unprepared I was until it happened. Then I was what I'd never wanted to be, a bum, and took initiative to change that by joining the military before I initially planned.

Also I'd embrace my sexuality with a few less bumps than it took on this path.

But I know I couldn't change a thing other than me, and that these changes could have a pretty radical effect on those around me. I don't think it will happen though, never have, I have always been far too concerned with how fragile my existence is if it were real then to think of it just being a dream.

[The SSB Intern]

I honestly think that, more than anything, I would be pissed off at what I lost. Although there are a few things that I would do differently given the second chance, I'd just be obsessed with the chance encounters I've had that would be near impossible to recreate and the depressing amount of time I've spent making sure I got into the college I wanted. This would culminate in a psychological breakdown lasting several days, leaving me disillusioned with the ideas of hard work and joy.

This state of mind, combined with the knowledge that this second life could very well be yet another layer of the dream, will cause me to forgo all human interaction and spend my days playing my N64, my only solace being that I am back in a time when the buttons on the controller are still usable.

[pochercoaster]

I think I'd probably fuck over some mofos from my past, instead of just evaporating from their lives. Just for the enjoyment of revenge.

So it's probably good that this isn't a thing that actually happens.

Also: make money predicting shit.

[Aerozord]

I'm rarely in my dreams, most are third person perspective, so the fact I am me is fairly strong evidence this is reality. Besides on some level I am always aware when I am dreaming. To me dreams are just entertainment and the moment they fail to be a assert my awareness and alter them.