It seems like it is worse for someone to be tortured to death than to be put in a coma for the same duration as the torture and then killed. Death eliminates memories as readily as fancy erasure techniques. So it seems like pain-moments are bad, and while pain-memories are probably also bad, they do not constitute the whole of the badness of pain-moments.
On the subject of pain-moment badness,
If pain becomes more common (even if it gets forgotten), then at any given instant I’m more likely to be in pain than otherwise, which I would consider worse, even if I forget it afterwards.
So torturing people then removing the memory is a bad thing, as a general rule.
I’m still a bit shaky on how that affects question 2.
Death eliminates memories as readily as fancy erasure techniques.
Well said. It also bears noting that being tortured and then killed is (I think?) considered worse than merely being tortured. I realize that this is mostly because death has greater consequences than just erasing memories, but it makes me think—if you’re going to be tortured anyway, would you rather remember it?
I think I might. Some of that is probably an instinctive aversion to having my consciousness messed with, or the vague feeling that I have a right to be as aware of my own past as possible. But it also seems like having experienced serious pain could dampen everyday sorts of pain by comparison, which could come in handy. On the other hand, of course, PTSD. (I wonder how many PTSD sufferers would have their memories erased, if that were possible?)
It seems like it is worse for someone to be tortured to death than to be put in a coma for the same duration as the torture and then killed. Death eliminates memories as readily as fancy erasure techniques. So it seems like pain-moments are bad, and while pain-memories are probably also bad, they do not constitute the whole of the badness of pain-moments.
On the subject of pain-moment badness, If pain becomes more common (even if it gets forgotten), then at any given instant I’m more likely to be in pain than otherwise, which I would consider worse, even if I forget it afterwards.
So torturing people then removing the memory is a bad thing, as a general rule.
I’m still a bit shaky on how that affects question 2.
Well said. It also bears noting that being tortured and then killed is (I think?) considered worse than merely being tortured. I realize that this is mostly because death has greater consequences than just erasing memories, but it makes me think—if you’re going to be tortured anyway, would you rather remember it?
I think I might. Some of that is probably an instinctive aversion to having my consciousness messed with, or the vague feeling that I have a right to be as aware of my own past as possible. But it also seems like having experienced serious pain could dampen everyday sorts of pain by comparison, which could come in handy. On the other hand, of course, PTSD. (I wonder how many PTSD sufferers would have their memories erased, if that were possible?)