this is actually an amazing concept for a story, there are so many dynamics that could arise out of this.
It would just be a standard part of burials for someone to be assigned the brain of the deceased, with rituals to make it less disgusting and kinda hide that fact.But since you’re gaining their memories, it would also be kind of harrowing to be the assigned inheritor, you’re basically just taking their entire mind into you, so you might end up designating an “avatar” person who is never given a chance to form their own personality and instead just spends their entire life carrying the sum total experience of those before them, and only rarely would someone else consume the memories of another if it’s vital that they specifically gain that specific knowledge.
Like good lord, imagine having a legitimate god-emperor who is the physical embodiment of all those who have come before, who you yourself will almost certainly become part of when you die (unless your body is lost)…
Then imagine that person dying and the brain being lost, cutting off the 10 thousand year unbroken lineage… terrifyingThere is something similar to this in the Dresden Files. The Archive contains the sum of all written knowledge and inherits the memory of their predecessor.
Depending on how long the memories last, the first person to find a dead body or see someone die might be obligated to eat the brain. If they last longer, brains of skilled laborers might be highly commodified and the use of your brain highly regulated if it’s at all important to the government.
Without spoiling too much, do yourself a favour and read the Dune books haha. Hint: book 4 is titled God Emperor of Dune.
“The Book of the New Sun” exists and is one of the most amazing things ever written. I can’t recommend it enough but it comes with the caveat that you don’t “read Gene Wolfe, you reread him”.
I think there was a bit in Vampire: The Masquerade where you could eat drain another vampire to gain their powers. Someone tried to do that to an especially powerful vampire, but the eaten vampire was so powerful they took over the one who ate them from the inside, eventually. So that might be a concern. You eat someone who’s so vivid that it eclipses who you were.
Not just reliably. If there was a chance, people would do it.
There’s no known chance (and a known and significant chance to catch diseases this way) and at least some people are already doing it!
Prions were the real horror story all along.
IZombie is that
We have books. Reading seems easier then eating brains.
Those don’t work for me no matter how many times I try. I must have eaten, 30 maybe 40 books by now
Oh I don’t know.
If you eat someone’s brains you get a snack as well as a memory.
Do you need the right parts of the brain to get the right knowledge, or is just any part good enough to get everything?
I’m imagining college getting really weird.
Anyone here read Sister, Maiden, Monster? Good read, fully recommend.
