005. Text // my world is unaffected

[manufactured]

It's been some time since Retrospec has properly dropped some sort of identity crisis on us, though I suppose it's good to know that we're getting a bit more information out of them now than we were in the past; I'm in no way looking down on small favors and silver linings. Just the same, I wonder for the time being where that leaves us - I know I've asked a few of you about this in the past, and I'm sure that a fair amount of you have made your decisions regarding it since.

I suppose what I want to hear is your thoughts on these people you're receiving memories of, whether you consider them "you" or otherwise - do you still think of them as a separate person from yourself or do you consider them to be the same as "you", and why you've come to feel that way. I'm not going to argue for feeling one way or another on the matter, I'm just wondering how you've come to see these people that technically don't exist anymore.

Of course, if you reject this entire matter completely and just consider this to be an example of some corporate entity you hate ruining your life for no apparent reason, that's likewise fair.

I've formed my own views on this fairly recently; I tend to find it calming, having some sort of conclusion that I can accept as reasonably true for the time being. It's not always convenient, but it's calming.

Comments

[standalonehuman]

Despite everything that Retrospec has been saying, I know the man I'm seeing is not me. It doesn't make any sense for that to be true, philosophically or biologically, or from any perspective I can discern.

I respect that a lot of other people have a different perspective, and if they are instead getting some inspiration from what they are seeing? Learning what they think they can become? Then I can support that.

[manufactured]

A fair amount of the things that have happened over the past several months don't make biological sense; at this point I wouldn't consider that cause to rule out the possibility, personally.

[standalonehuman]

But he and I, other-Togusa and I. We've had different lives, made different choices, have completely different memories. The difference is only going to get more pronounced over time, not less.

The problem is, that, so far, every time there's a physical difference between us? This process has chosen the other person's physicality to take over our own. I've never been injured, but I got an injury that the other-Togusa received.

[manufactured]

I understand. It's disconcerting at best, and the differences between one's current life and the lives we remember are often jarring; I'm not going to try to claim that they aren't. The life represented in my own memories was... Well, there were a lot of things about it that I'm not proud of, and more things about it that I'm disinterested in repeating. It isn't the kind of life I would want for myself, to put it rather gently, nor is it the one I choose to lead now.

I would think, however, that the physical changes would make more of a case for those memories truly being ours, not less?

[standalonehuman]

I'll tell you the same thing I've been trying to encourage everyone of, then: don't carry the burdens of the choices someone else made. Learn from their mistakes, or get inspired from their successes, I'd encourage that. But the guilt of two people is too much.

I'm not a dramatic enough example to explain what I mean, so let's take one of our police cadets. Her body here in Recolle had human ears, while the woman she is remembering had feline ears. When it came time to rectify the difference between the two? Retrospec chose the form that had cat ears, over-writing her body in this life.

[manufactured]

With all due respect, some of us can't afford to live in that sort of denial. Continuing to shirk responsibility by deflecting all blame is unacceptable for some of us, particularly when doing so involves such willful ignorance of what actually appears to be happening. These aren't "someone else's" decisions.

And I've had my share of physical changes. No one here is changing into a different person; they're regaining what they once were. This is a point that's been made multiple times by Retrospec; I understand the lack of willingness to follow blindly, but there has been no evidence that they're lying to us, either.

[standalonehuman]

I'm beyond the point of thinking that they're lying to us. However, I think they simply don't know what they're talking about.

This process seems to have started multiple times before, Retrospec notes have referred to the memory process happening in cycles. There is Zee, who is remembering another life, but is farther along the process than any of us who started with the app. However they have done this before, it might not have involved the application.

But Wendy has said that Retrospec isn't in control of the process. It would happen anyway, without Retrospec facilitating. The items we have been being sent would appear no matter what, again, Retrospec is just sending them along. And lastly, Zee seems to have no idea what happens when the process finishes. Nobody has been forgetting anything yet. I'm not worried about now, I'm worried about then.

[manufactured]

I'm largely disinterested in arguing differing viewpoints; however, I'm not certain where you're getting the impression that anyone has said anything of the sort regarding this simply being something that would happen without Retrospec's interference in the first place, given that that is more or less the entire point of their little project. Wendy's assertions were in response to people assuming that Retrospec has any day in what we remember when; they're the reason the process happens at all, but it happens organically once it's started. That's all any of the employees have ever said regarding this; it's been consistent regardless of who is being spoken to.

(Outside of Jim, perhaps, but we all have our opinions on Jim.)

As for Mr. Carlisle, he isn't particularly forthcoming but he's been willing to throw information out there regarding his own experiences if he's asked reasonably nicely; he's from a different group that used different methods. A less streamlined version of ours, if you will.

If your assertion is "they don't know what they're talking aboht" then the logical followthrough on that is that you likewise don't know what you're talking about and neither can anyone else, just due to the nature of the situation. Regardless, however, your suppositions appear to be based in an interpretation of statements that don't otherwise support the conclusion.

[standalonehuman]

Disappointing, and that's where we'll have to hit our impasse, because I am here to argue differing viewpoints. How else can any of us figure out what this means to us?

But Carlisle insisted that Retrospec has just been facilitators. Retrospec's current incarnation isn't who started the process. They also can't stop it. Whoever does know what's going on isn't communicating it to their employees, either, there's just this implicit trust that the process will do what they expect it to.

And, again, no one can say for sure what happens at the end of the process. If this other soul is totally restored, what does that mean for the world that soul comes from? And what does it mean for the consciousness the soul is stored in for the time being, or, us.

[manufactured]

...I sincerely hope that a member of the police would understand the importance of basic clearance levels and giving information to those that are required to know it. Why would you assume Retrospec doesn't have such a system in place? It isn't half the conspiracy the lot of you make it out to be; it's an entirely rational model.

And again, you're operating under a flawed assumption - one that has been addressed multiple times by several different people, all pointing to the same conclusion. It's hardly their fault, nor is it mine, if you don't want to listen.

[standalonehuman]

So if this other man's experiences are not the ones you want in your own life, as you said earlier, what meaning are you getting out of all this? And when the day comes that you remember everything about that life, what do you expect to happen?

[manufactured]

When it comes to the eventual outcome - bluntly put, I don't know. I don't believe they're lying about the restoration process, but I acknowledge that no one who has spoken to us seems to know what that's going to look like. I believe someone does, but that information is on an infuriatingly need-to-know basis; I likewise acknowledge that it's possible that you're correct in that something...unfortunate, let's say, awaits us at the end of this. I have no problem with the rational concept of information clearance levels, but I don't know why that particular information would be gated when it's something that would likely be optimistic if it plays out exactly as portrayed.

So I admit that there are some worrying holes in all of this; that much isn't baseless. I'm personally hoping that all of this is legitimate, but if it isn't... Well, that will end poorly for people, to put it gently. I've done terrible things over being led around in that sort of way before; I would prefer to let old habits remain in the past. But that bridge will have to be crossed when we come to it.

As for what meaning I personally get out of it, it has a fair amount to do with free will and personal choice, both of which I seem to have been denied on a fundamental level in my past life.