Fog of Ages

[Lehcar]

Please have a look at this very short page on TVtropes so you know what I'm talking about: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheFogOfAges :sweat:

 

We are clearly told this "Fog of Ages" thing affects golems, because they are immortal and their memory supposedly can only go back so far.

 

But, if this is so... how is it that the Paragon Caridin, who has stayed alive as a golem for over 1000 years (which is longer than most)... can still remember everything about his life when he was still a dwarf? How does he still remember who he was, and the names of people who lived and died aeons ago, and how does he still remember the events that led to his becoming a golem so clearly?

[RustyBlade]

Aside from the fact they didn't mention DA, they are merely speculating when they say:

see, one could argue that there's only so much space the brain can hold, like a video cassette

They do not back up their assertion with any scientific or medical facts. They can argue until they are blue in the face but without any facts to back up their assertion it means little. It could simply be that the brain degrades as the body does and that is why we lose memories.

 

As for Caridin:

 

He says that his apprentices were able to make him a golem but not a control rod so perhaps they were also unable to blank his mind as was done with the other golems.

 

It is also possible that being made of iron, his brain may be iron as well and not affected by decay or the limited capacity of a living brain.

[DarkSpiral]

Aside from the fact they didn't mention DA, they are merely speculating when they say:

see, one could argue that there's only so much space the brain can hold, like a video cassette

They do not back up their assertion with any scientific or medical facts. They can argue until they are blue in the face but without any facts to back up their assertion it means little. It could simply be that the brain degrades as the body does and that is why we lose memories.

 

As for Caridin:

 

He says that his apprentices were able to make him a golem but not a control rod so perhaps they were also unable to blank his mind as was done with the other golems.

 

It is also possible that being made of iron, his brain may be iron as well and not affected by decay or the limited capacity of a living brain.

 

Actually, Shale remembers her past just fine, after a little prodding by the player, and by Caradin's words to her. So I think it can be argued that the golems didn't have their minds wiped. They are enslaved to the control rods, so they don't get to act on their own thoughts. I'll admit it's pretty murky, though. Could go either way.

 

There is also a big difference between simply forgetting something, and actually not having the memories in your head anymore. Wolverine, as a famous example of having your head messed with, has had most of the memories of his life actually wiped away (the means of this vary between mediums and stories). He hasn't precisely forgotten, so much as the information is actually gone. I think a real-world example is Alzheimer's Disease, where the synapse connections that the brain creates actually decay away. But I could be wrong about that, I'm no doctor.