Obviously inspired by another recent thread about a superpower.
You have the power to select and erase individual small episodes from anyone’s memory at any time. The catch? Each memory episode must be overwritten with something else, and the “something else” is always a realistic photo of you as you are at the time when you used the erase function. Any time the target would have thought of that memory, they will see your picture instead. You can try to erase their memory picture of you if you want - it will just put a new picture of you in place of the older one. Once their original memory episode has been erased, it won’t come back.
Um, I think it would be confusing as hell to your target, but not enough of a drawback to prevent using towards your own gain, or in helping others overcoming trauma. I guess?
I don’t see the point of “your picture”. Is this supposed to be a detriment to the target? Are you hideous? I can’t see this as being a detriment other than a WTF moment for for the target.
Yeah, but what do they “do” with that? It’s a superpower, so they could never prove anything, kind of like an unprovable roofie.
If it’s for ill-gotten gain, you probably don’t care for the person much, so a WTF moment, would, at most, make them avoid and distrust you in the future. If you left no incriminating evidence behind, you’d be in the clear. You’d be a moron to use it in a way that couldn’t be covered up (though I’m sure some morons would).
If it was to erase a trauma, even your own, you could explain what you were doing and why, and get consent. That part wouldn’t be erased. That’s probably what I’d use it for most. I’m not convinced though that having bad memories are always bad. They can aid in your decision making process.
Well, I can sort of think of a way I’d use it. I frequently deal with people (especially when teaching) who I (jokingly) describe as needing a squirt of “brain erase.” By this I mean that I really need them to forget what they THINK they know and follow what I’m saying/describing in order to understand an important point. (For example, students THINK they understand the legal requirements for some action but actually don’t. They need to go back to a point where they will listen to what the requirements actually ARE.)
In these cases, it might be helpful for them to forget the erroneous information and how they got it. In the place of this would be me…as the instructor giving them new and correct information.
January 4, 2019. Nancy Pelosi is once again Speaker of the House, second in the line of succession to the Presidency.
Donald Trump and Mike Pence both get brainwiped. As a result of their inability to remember so much as their toilet training, they are both removed from office, Pelosi becomes President, and the world is a much better place as a result.
Sure. If there’s some ultimate good that can come from them losing a certain memory, I’ll do it. They’ll definitely be confused, though. I don’t think they’ll straight up get angry, because there’s absolutely no context related to the image. It’s just a picture of me.
