Forged Memory

[Trusk'our he/him]

I have a little idea as to how someone could learn the contents of a huge library without ever even cracking the cover of most of them.

First, go to the library.

Second, start reading a book, but also look at the titles of the other books.

Third, use a Soulstamp to rewrite your past to say that you read a different book than you actually read.

Fourth, save the information of the books in a Coppermind, allowing you to retain their knowledge even after the stamp expires.

What do you guys think of this plan?

[Some Random Spren he/him]

one problem: you wouldn't have the memory of the contents of the book to replace
when a memory is in a coppermind you don't have it in your mind, meaning you can't switch the contents of it with another book
also i'm fairly sure that you'd need to know the contents of each book to do that, which would defeat the point of the forgery

[That1Cellist he/him]

10 minutes ago, Some Random Spren said:

one problem: you wouldn't have the memory of the contents of the book to replace
when a memory is in a coppermind you don't have it in your mind, meaning you can't switch the contents of it with another book
also i'm fairly sure that you'd need to know the contents of each book to do that, which would defeat the point of the forgery

I agree with this. Then you would need to create a different stamp for like every book. That would be a real pain.

[Some Random Spren he/him]

you could potentially make a stamp to do the same effect to SOMEONE ELSE though

[That1Cellist he/him]

16 minutes ago, Some Random Spren said:

you could potentially make a stamp to do the same effect to SOMEONE ELSE though

I mean if it was plausible enough I think you could create a soulstamp for yourself that would just make your soul think you had read all of the books so...

This is my 100th post!

Edited August 25, 2022 by That1Cellist

[Some Random Spren he/him]

15 minutes ago, That1Cellist said:

I mean if it was plausible enough I think you could create a soulstamp for yourself that would just make your soul think you had read all of the books so...

This is my 100th post!

to make a soulstamp you need to know enough about what you're forging

unless you knew the complete contents of all of the books you couldn't make the soulstamp

[That1Cellist he/him]

49 minutes ago, Some Random Spren said:

to make a soulstamp you need to know enough about what you're forging

unless you knew the complete contents of all of the books you couldn't make the soulstamp

Yeah. Thanks for the clarification. There are always one or two fine details I forget when it comes to magic systems.

[offer]

1 hour ago, Some Random Spren said:

to make a soulstamp you need to know enough about what you're forging

unless you knew the complete contents of all of the books you couldn't make the soulstamp

Shai was able to soulcast herself to a master in a martial art so you can soulcast yourself into knowing something new. I think that knowing contents of a book should work the same way.

[Some Random Spren he/him]

3 hours ago, offer said:

Shai was able to soulcast herself to a master in a martial art so you can soulcast yourself into knowing something new. I think that knowing contents of a book should work the same way.

She probably researched the theory behind all of it first and just made the soulstamp rather than spending ages practising said theory. She would already have the knowledge but not the physical aftereffects and muscle memory of the training. This wouldn't apply in this "forged memory" situation.
However you could make an essence mark that contains the books for future use, to be used when you forget the contents of the book, sorta using soulstamps a bit like a budget coppermind

[Trusk'our he/him]

7 hours ago, Some Random Spren said:

She probably researched the theory behind all of it first and just made the soulstamp rather than spending ages practising said theory. She would already have the knowledge but not the physical aftereffects and muscle memory of the training. This wouldn't apply in this "forged memory" situation.
However you could make an essence mark that contains the books for future use, to be used when you forget the contents of the book, sorta using soulstamps a bit like a budget coppermind

It was my impression that you had to make the stamp plausible and you had to have a basic understanding of what it was doing, but you didn't need to have perfect knowledge, or else most stamps would be rather pointless. So, maybe you could read a brief summary of the book, perhaps provided by said book's preface, and then make the stamp to say you spent the whole day reading that book. You would need to at least edit the stamp to work with a different book's contents, perhaps by simply replacing the stamps linked to the end stamp, as most complex stamps do.

 

13 hours ago, Some Random Spren said:

one problem: you wouldn't have the memory of the contents of the book to replace
when a memory is in a coppermind you don't have it in your mind, meaning you can't switch the contents of it with another book
also i'm fairly sure that you'd need to know the contents of each book to do that, which would defeat the point of the forgery

True. You would be replacing the memories of one book with memories of another, rewriting your past to say you spent that time reading a different book. Hence the need for an Unsealed Coppermind, allowing you to store the memories temporarily provided by the Soulstamp, which you could then recover after the stamp wore off.