Quote:
Originally Posted by sir_pudding
A former colleague of mine suffered a traumatic brain injury a number of years ago. As a result he lost the ability to retain long term memories and cannot recall anything after a half hour or so before the incident (a similar injury is depicted in the film 50 First Dates). Such injuries are apparently not uncommon and many people who have suffered trauma are unable to remember the incident itself. If a continuity of memory is required for identity is my former brother in arms the same person that he was before the trauma? For that matter was my maternal grandmother the same person she was before the dementia completely destroyed her memories?
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I visited my grandmother on occasion after her dementia set in, it was sad to see the shell of the body of a person I loved, but I knew she had been dead for years before her body finally passed away.
Traumatic brain injuries, strokes, dementia, etc., all kill the identity of the person, even if the fact the body is still animated makes it hard for us to mourn and move on.
As for why TS is a silly genre, it's basically a high fantasy magic setting where instead of mana, psionics or gods there's "technology" to explain away the magic, but what makes it truly silly is that it's in denial about being high fantasy...