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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dias Ex Machina" data-source="post: 4878070" data-attributes="member: 58907">Back on my Neurospasta talkTHE NEW CONSIOUSNESS, part 2The eventuality that did occur was not expected. Although millions of people would download memories daily, most of the time, the memories they preferred to experience were their own, which they would replay from home servers. Many times, instead of downloading new memories, they would repeat older ones personally experienced over and over again. This new addiction was unforeseen and psychoanalysts attempted to classify this dependence. It was easy to identify why an individual would prefer their own memories over others, but to spend their lives repeating those over and over confounded many of them. Even today, vast numbers of people world-wide stopped forming new memories, merely reliving events of their youth. This addiction was eventually called Pervasive Reminiscence Replication Disorder (PRRD).Oddly enough, this addiction is much more prevalent in lower-class communities, and especially in nations with a lower quality of living. In Archon, this addiction is only noticed in areas like the REZ. In A3 and Loka, it is virtually nonexistent. That being said, the downloading of "foreign" memories is more popular than ever in more advanced nations.The drawback with recorded memory, of course, is a complete lack of control over the experience. The user would see the face of the real source of the memory in a mirror and have no influence over his or her actions, even to the point of being unable stop actions that go against the moral fortitude of the downloader. This introduced another psychological condition: Cognitive Proxy Separation Anxiety (CPSA). CPSA had its roots over a century ago as experts analyzed the effect of violent visual and auditory stimuli on children, namely with the introduction of violent television and movies. It was discovered that a small percentage couldn't separate the anxiety encountered by characters on a screen from their own. Further, these stimuli influenced their behavior as it exposed them to actions they found a compulsion to replicate. Even more found the experiences desensitizing. However, the vast majority were able to detach experiences seen on a screen with those actually experienced. Downloadable memories, unfortunately, circumvent that barrier the human psyche places on stimuli received from a TV/movie screen or from a radio. The event feels completely real and is regarding as a true memory by the one streaming it, despite the jarring shifts in self-image and attitude. CPSA occurs in individuals that develop other deep-rooted psychological conditions from viewing other people's memories. They develop post-traumatic stress disorder and phobias as well as social anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders. Some patients went further and had complete emotional and psychological breakdowns from which they never recovered. This is in despite of the emotional state of the person originally experiencing it. For example, a popular choice for memory downloads were experiences by soldiers in armed combat. These were tempting and were streamed by the millions, especially by teenagers addicted to simulated combat via computer games. But the soldiers recording those memories were trained for months if not years to handle such stresses and with no such padding, the streamed memories caused significant emotional damage, especially since, with the advent of the TCA protocol, the entire memory could be downloaded and experienced in minutes before the brains desire for food or sleep overrode the reproduced memory. When experiencing a memory, a person is emotionally connected to it and most people can't terminate the experience once it begins unless certain fail safes kick in, including any stimuli from the outside world meant to jostle the subject. Those that have no such event occurring, and place no such fail safes themselves, are often forced to experience the memory until its conclusion. Websites where memory systems were exchanged became known as Memory Swaps, while the actual memories themselves were nicknamed ProMs (Proxy Memories). Soon after, ProMs were defined specifically as real memories created by one source and downloaded by others. Syms, or Synthetic Memories are nearly identical except the memory has been intentionally modified or is fabricated from the ground up to alter realty. Synthetic memories are not as popular as real memories as users want the authenticity of reality. If they wanted something completely fabricated, another type of virtual experience was waiting to cater to that desire. Those addicted to these experiences, including sufferers from CPSA, have been called proxiphiles, loose strings, and sometimes just zeros.While memory swaps were gaining in popularity, other aspects of the SEED were quickly maturing. This included reversing the recording sensors of the Seed, overriding sensory input to a body. This was a feature always included as it allowed users to access built in music and video players. They could make phone calls and surf the net without ever requiring a screen or keyboard. Beyond this, companies started developing passive spam simulations, which involved creating advertisements in one's visual field when they enter a certain area. These features could be suppressed but, soon after, it expanded into the entertainment industry. Instead of clumsy and unrealistic holograms, gamers would simply tie into the Seed network for the simulation. It was then easy to fabricate an artificial environment using direct sensory input, leading into two distinct experiences, virtual recreation and total immersion experiences. Virtual recreation involves matting virtual images into real backdrops. This includes simulated people and even sets. This makes the experience feel more real and also makes rendering cheaper as the backdrops don't need to be digitized. Several large recreation facilities offer day-long virtual adventures in hanger-sized sets with little more than a few boxes, a handful of buildings, and rows of artificial plants. Total immersion, a far more expensive option, disengages the subject's motor functions and overrides all sensory input. In these sceneries, there is no limit on the extremity of the event. Several corporations install catheters and food tubes for immersion experiences that can last for days. Total immersion allows the use of time compression, allowing a dozen hours of gameplay in only two, unlike virtual recreation, which must be in real time. Both of these experiences allow direct user input to change events and circumstances. The players can look like themselves or anyone else they wish. There was still, however, the problem of CPSA, as the experiences were direct and unavoidable, meaning the target believed they were in that situation. Though the vast majority of users could separate fantasy from reality, those susceptible to CPSA could not as the barrier the human mind places on traumatic images and stories relayed by an external device was circumvented. It became even more prevalent the detachment felt by those experiencing someone else's memory was no longer present, and the number of global CPSA cases grew. Society, unfortunately, was unwilling to wait for treatments or tolerances before moving on.</blockquote>

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