No, absolutely not. Memory is no substitute for presence.
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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How would you know the difference?
Can you not tell the difference between memory and reality?
Don't get me wrong, it would be absolutely incredible having such perfect recall that memories are indistinguishable from the present, I just don't think that's a trait many humans naturally possess.
Given that I rely on my memory to know what happened, no.
How do you know the difference?
The point is not the difference between a fake memory and a real one (let's grant for now that they are undistinguishable) but the fact that positive experiences are worth a lot more than just the memories they leave you with.
I may not know the difference between a memory of an event that I experienced and a memory of an event I didn't experience. Looking back on the past, they're the same.
But each moment of pleasure that I only remember, without having experienced it, was essentially stolen from me. Pleasure is a state of consciousness and only exists in the present.