speculation Possible Implication of Coins [Bands Spoilers]

[Nethseäar]

This assumes facts not in evidence, and is pure speculation.

That aside:

We see a memory from the Sovereign (presumably Kelsier) stored in the coin Wax got from Hoid. We're also told that there are many (hundreds?) of these coins distributed around New Seran.

Coins are typically manufactured to be identical. Granted, these aren't so much coins as Feruchemical medallions, but I had the thought: What if the same memory is stored in every coin? (obviously we have no idea)

If the same memory is stored in the same coin, there might be a machine for copying memories in Copperminds!

So, yeah. Almost completely baseless. But the idea is really cool. Suddenly news can be spread in the form of viewable/experienceable eyewitness accounts, copied infinitely without degradation (unless the machine naturally causes degradation . . .).

Copyable unkeyed Copperminds have all kinds of fun uses -- sharing experiences with people, helping people learn in school, etc.

And maybe Era 4 will have something like digitally transferrable memories -- you touch a Coppermind console to store them, then transfer hundreds of miles instantly to another Coppermind, where someone else can access them. Even if you can't transfer them digitally/mechanically, copper cables could form a single, massive Coppermind Internet!

[king of nowhere]

there is a relatively easy way to duplicate memories, which is copper compounding. and yes, making experienceable memories one can access has definitely great applications. Although I can only think of entertainment implications; tapping a memory won't make one a scientist/engineer/expert-at-something, and have a datasheet that you can memorize at will is only marginally more useful than having the same datasheet on paper.

[Pechvarry]

Experiential learning is still important.  Imagine what a cheap supply of these could do for a factory.  Need this thing assembled?  Have your floor lead go through it a few times, then store a memory of it.  Take the master into the office, duplicate it a few dozen times, now pass them out to unskilled labor so they experience "how to do it right" once right off the bat.  You would still want documentation and QA checks of course.

 

If the unkeyed metalmind can also be made to allow storing, you could go a step further: imagine a workforce that's always working while tapping a memory; ghosting their own motions to the memory they're reliving.  They start each shift with an unblemished "master" memory, tap as they assemble, then store that memory and immediately begin tapping it when they work on the next part.  I can imagine this would make time pass in a blur, which is a plus.

 

I can also imagine some other small, mundane uses: servers memorizing menu with prices, for example.

 

I really want to know about that "anyone can store" possibility, though.  If you can make a device like that... copper is going to have some very interesting psychiatric applications.

[Ookla the Absent]

Yeah, with the new "open" metalminds, copper just got a whole lot more interesting...

[DrakeMarshall]

I wonder if there were memories on the actual bands...

[Mistform]

Could the Kandra tap the bands if this is the case?

[natc]

It'd depend on how the trick that let's nicrosilminds function for non-soulbearers I guess. It may only work on humans, it may be universal.

We need more info Sovereign.

[Rasarr]

While we're on the topic of coins, I've got this a bit weird idea for implications of their existence: movies!

 

Think about it: rather than using bulky camera equipment, you use a person, a "living camera", to record scenes into coins. You then take all the coins and lay them down in order before another person, an "editor", who taps scene-memory after scene-memory without breaks and then stores the memory of the entire "movie" into another coin. You duplicate this movie-coin and sell them like DVDs, only the buyer doesn't need DVD equipment to watch them - they just sit comfortably in a chair and tap the entire movie from the coppermind. 3D, realistic sound, highest possible image quality, full immersion into the movie... Of course, BoM seems to indicate that we will get moving pictures sometimes soon, but still, as "home video" this could have some potential.

 

Another application: witness testimonies. Worried that your witness is lying? Have them store the memory into a coppermind and let the police tap it.

[killersquirrel59]

 

 

Another application: witness testimonies. Worried that your witness is lying? Have them store the memory into a coppermind and let the police tap it.

This brings up some interesting implications and a necessary follow-up. How accurate is a stored memory necessarily? Is it possible to store a false memory (i.e. could I conjure up a mental image that's pure fiction and store that image in a coppermind)? And that's not even getting into the sheer unreliability of our own memories with regards to witness testimony (here is just one of many scholarly papers on the subject) and this wouldn't be made better by the use of Feruchemical copper unless the memories were stored immediately on the scene, and possibly not even then. I'm not sure the justice system would really be any better off by introducing memory storing to the equation.

[Melaan]

Could the Kandra tap the bands if this is the case?

I was wondering the same thing. i know Kandra aren't supposed to be able to use Allomancy, yet we see Bleeder do so via Hemlergy

I'm not sure about Ferecumey, but MeLaan was able to use the medallions so. . . .?

 

 

While we're on the topic of coins, I've got this a bit weird idea for implications of their existence: movies!

 

Think about it: rather than using bulky camera equipment, you use a person, a "living camera", to record scenes into coins. You then take all the coins and lay them down in order before another person, an "editor", who taps scene-memory after scene-memory without breaks and then stores the memory of the entire "movie" into another coin. You duplicate this movie-coin and sell them like DVDs, only the buyer doesn't need DVD equipment to watch them - they just sit comfortably in a chair and tap the entire movie from the coppermind. 3D, realistic sound, highest possible image quality, full immersion into the movie... Of course, BoM seems to indicate that we will get moving pictures sometimes soon, but still, as "home video" this could have some potential.

I have so often wished I could store story ideas and cool dreams this way. If I lived in the mistborn world I want this job. make coin movies.

[Szmit]

On 14.03.2016 at 1:30 AM, king of nowhere said:

there is a relatively easy way to duplicate memories, which is copper compounding. and yes, making experienceable memories one can access has definitely great applications. Although I can only think of entertainment implications; tapping a memory won't make one a scientist/engineer/expert-at-something, and have a datasheet that you can memorize at will is only marginally more useful than having the same datasheet on paper.

What about Terris order of Keepers? They possesed A LOT of usefull knowledge in their metalminds. The process of tapping metalmind is described to be like reading a book. Imagine how much could you learn if you read a bunch of books about medicine, engeniering, other languages or history ten times in a row! You could tap instantly a whole five years of theoritical studies. It wouldnt b as good as participating in it actively, but infinitely faster, and could be ballanced out with some practical exercises to shortly after.

[Vissy]

While on the topic of hundreds of such coins being distributed all around the Basin, what is Kelsier's (we have to assume it's him who started this) goal in wanting to publish his connection to these Southerners? Is he finally making his big, dramatic return?

[Oversleep]

Maybe those were regular Southener coins? Maybe it's their custom to have the first commendment ('survive') and first account of the coming of their Sovereign in their coins?

[Edgedancer]

12 hours ago, Oversleep said:

Maybe those were regular Southener coins? Maybe it's their custom to have the first commendment ('survive') and first account of the coming of their Sovereign in their coins?

Well you can't make copperminds from somebody's memories withouth that somebody to store the memories first, so Kelsier must have commisioned them himself, even if he only wanted to show off with money. And to be fair, even then I'm not sure if all the coins could contain the same memory, seeing how the entire point of storing a memory is that you no longer have said memory. Actually storing memories of events entirely sounds like a less than stellar idea, unless he has a work around.

[Rasarr]

18 minutes ago, Edgedancer said:

Well you can't make copperminds from somebody's memories withouth that somebody to store the memories first, so Kelsier must have commisioned them himself, even if he only wanted to show off with money. And to be fair, even then I'm not sure if all the coins could contain the same memory, seeing how the entire point of storing a memory is that you no longer have said memory. Actually storing memories of events entirely sounds like a less than stellar idea, unless he has a work around.

Well, he presumably did find a way to create bajilion copies of the same memory, so he could simply tap one of the coins to regain it.

On a vaguely-related not, I really like @Oversleep's idea.

[Oversleep]

@Edgedancer, @Rasarr

I assume that Copper Compounding allows to make copies of memories. So yes, Kelsier would need to create the first one, but after that it's easy to make more.

[Edgedancer]

7 hours ago, Rasarr said:

Well, he presumably did find a way to create bajilion copies of the same memory, so he could simply tap one of the coins to regain it.

On a vaguely-related not, I really like @Oversleep's idea.

Do we know that all coins hold the same memory? Because they also could be a kind of journal all holding a different memeory and Hoid just gave the one to Wax with the most dramatic effect.

[Oversleep]

10 minutes ago, Edgedancer said:

Do we know that all coins hold the same memory? Because they also could be a kind of journal all holding a different memeory and Hoid just gave the one to Wax with the most dramatic effect.

I don't remember any WoBs about coins in particular. On medallions, yes, but not much about the coins themselves. From the book we only know what the informant at the party told Wax, that there were some coins circulating on the black market but now everybody hid theirs.

[Eki]

2 hours ago, Edgedancer said:

Do we know that all coins hold the same memory? Because they also could be a kind of journal all holding a different memeory and Hoid just gave the one to Wax with the most dramatic effect.

I don't think we even know if they were copperminds or not, do we? They could just be unlocked metalminds of different sorts.

[Szmit]

On 17.06.2016 at 0:20 AM, Eki said:

I don't think we even know if they were copperminds or not, do we? They could just be unlocked metalminds of different sorts.

In one of them was memory, so it sounds like a resonable assumption that these are copperminds.