Are false memories or fake memories still legitimate memories?
I just re-watched Inception and had lots of interesting philosophical thoughts. One of them being:
If you mis-remember your memories, or if your memories are actually not real … are they still legitimate?
What if I mis-remembered the memory?
This is the interesting thing:
Our memory isn’t 100% accurate. We often make up memories, falsify memories, augment memories, etc.
For example, let us say you have bad memories of the past of your father or something, and you hold bitter resentment. And this resentment actually holds you back and makes you more timid, weak, and soft. So this memory is a bad memory.
But what if you misremembered the memory? Even worse; what if this memory never even existed in the first place, and we made it up completely?
What is real, what isn’t real?
Or in other words:
What is legitimate, and what ISN’T legitimate?
Besides talking about atoms and physics, ‘real’ is subjective. I think when we talk about what is real or not, what we mean to say is “is it legitimate or not?”
What does ‘legitimate’ mean?
Legitimate: ‘lex’ (law). What is legitimate is what is lawful. What is ‘right’ and not ‘wrong’.
For example, you can have illegitimate children (out of wedlock), but they are still real children. And they are not your legitimate children, but they are still your real children.
Legitimate anxieties, fears?
Then let us talk about ‘legitimate’ anxieties and fears. What is a legitimate anxiety or fear? For example, is it legitimate for a billionaire to be afraid of losing his fortune? Is it legitimate to be fearful that your wife might cheat on you? Are there degrees of legitimacy?
You shape your own reality
For example, all realities are subjective in the real world. For example, is the world of a video game player less legitimate than the world of a garbage truck driver? Or is the life of a pornstar less legitimate than that of an academic? Or is the life of a clergy member less legitimate than that of a stock broker or aggressive inline skater?
Living life in a metaphorical matrix
Certainly we do not live life in a matrix. But we live life in a type of metaphorical matrix. If we keep chasing sports cars, more money, bigger homes, more fame, more followers blah blah blah … isn’t this a type of box or matrix?