So the other day I was perusing the OT and noticed that there was a timer for the delete button thing. Basically for every minute it would say x minutes remaining. It started at five minutes, then went to 4 then 3 then 2 then 1 then 0. Before looking into what happened at zero I think I saw it maybe once or twice before. Or at least noticed it once or twice before. The question I had was what happened at zero. Told myself it was one of two things. Either it was a countdown till activation of the button or it was a countdown to deactivation. So I tested it out. Waited the five minutes and then saw the delete button disappear. So now it seems like we can't delete.
The question that followed that was why take away that delete function. A few ideas popped into my head. I'm not to sure if any of them are right or maybe it's a combination of these ideas. First idea is to prevent people from deleting traces of violating the rules. Now this has some flaws. Namely that we can still edit the post. So that seems like a flawed system. Which makes me favor the other idea that they don't want the page numbers and post count alignment to get screwed up. In the old site, glitches would start to arise if you had some deletions of posts. Another idea is stoping the bumping of topics where a user was the last one to post. Basically what happens there is that the person deletes their last post to bump the topic back up. Or they double posted and sacrifice a post to post again because an edit of an old post would be just wasteful. This idea may be a problem on some level but it seems like it would be a small issue.
But all of this led me to an idea that I wanted to talk to OT about. This idea of deleting memories. Recently played a game called Remember Me that had some memory elements. Now that game was frustrating in its unfulfilled potential to be something truly amazing, but all in all I still thought it was pretty adequate but more than that there was enough there to really love. But that is neither here nor there. Read a short story dealing with memory. It dealed with this sci fi set up where a person was able to store memories and stuff so they can relive them and keep them protected. Then this young guy breaks into the house I guess maybe to commit a robbery and comes across these tapes of an old woman's life. Something or another happens.
But ultimately this led me to think about the idea of deleting memories. At first for petty reasons and then I turned to more serious concerns. My idea was basically a subscription service that you paid a monthly fee of say 9.99 to delete certain memories from your mind. Now this idea is basically magic. You are able to delete specific memories without really losing or risking some grave level of sustainability. My initial idea was basically using this to delete memories of video games, movies, books, and tv. To basically allow yourself to be able to experience something as if it was the first time. Puzzle games was my first immediate thought since the replay factor is often small. Then it went to other games, books, and movies. My first question is would you be willing to pay for such a service at 9.99 a month? The memories will come back if you cancel the subscription.
Still along the somewhat petty lines of using the service to experience media like new again, I questioned if a service would do us a disservice. Maybe we will be too quick to not experience a book for the 2nd time as a 2nd time. To experience a closer rereading and garnering a greater appreciation for stuff that we may have missed the first time. Or just having a focusing of ideas. This applies to movies as well. But the service allows us to do that I guess. Plus it's really appealing to re experience the magic of that first time.
Which lead me to more serious issues of memory and the nature of who we are.
Basically if you were to experience a traumatic experience, would you be willing to forget it? Maybe this experience defined something for you that would be lost if you were to lose that experience. Maybe you gained new strength from that experience no matter how awful it was. My initial thought was maybe some experiences are best left forgotten but I was left with this felling that forgetting it was a way to put off dealing with the issue. That it would be unwise to try to eliminate the chance to work through it. This idea that deleting it didn't solve the underlying issue that needs to be worked through. So would you delete?
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