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The Unfathomable Sisterhood of Ick

Thoughts on the repercussions of a person dealing with foreign memories

Published onSep 30, 2019
The Unfathomable Sisterhood of Ick

I very much enjoyed the memory cube from The Unfathomable Sisterhood of Ick since they don’t go into detail about how the actual device works, but the possible inclinations of using such a device and how it can be abused. In the story, the antagonist has just gone through an agonizing breakup and is not looking forward to going back into the dating pool and going through the whole “dating process” again. Her friend suggests she use a memory cube to record her initial dates with her ex and use these memories to transfer to another potential partner so he can quickly decide if they will be a good fit and streamline the whole dating process.

Once the main character gets the memory cube from her ex, the friend then tricks her and takes the memory cube for herself to experience what true love feels like (since she is a bit of a flake and has never been in a serious relationship). In the end the memories start to break her down mentally since she has never experienced these strong emotions before since they are a stark difference to her normal aloof personality.

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Memory manipulation is a staple among sci-fi movies and films, but I thought this was a nice twist on how this technology could be used, such as speeding up the process of getting to know someone. It’s interesting that, much how a person can reject a donated organ, a person could also reject a foreign memory if it clashes with everything they’ve ever known. The friend from the story starts to have a mental breakdown when she realizes that she has never experienced such passionate love and likely never will because of who she is as a person. In the end, the main character has to ‘reboot’ her friends brain by making her go temporarily brain dead so that she can try to cope with the memories. Memory sharing would be an excellent technology for helping people to understand each other on a much more personal and emotional level, possibly helping to mitigate much of the hatred and fervor that many groups feel towards each other today. If people could feel the passion from both sides of an argument, I feel they could make more reasonable responses to situations.

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