You wake up tomorrow and it's Wednesday again. Everybody remembers it, but whatever was physically done today is undone. Your favorite mug, which the dog knocked over is un-broken. The kid down the street who got hit by a car -- his leg is just fine and the bike is okay, but he remembers the p...
So you're telling me that the guys rotating rock drilling hundreds of holes in my office's roof are going to come again tomorrow? ... and the day after that? ... ad infinitum?
Imagine the lady who gives birth that day... Secondarily, without the promise of personal gain, or the ability to rear offspring, would anyone really be motivated to do anything other than enjoy themselves? I imagine binge eating and drinking would ensue. Possibly martial arts training, book reading, movie watching, etc.
@GorchestopherH Interesting point about children, and exactly what I was looking for. I think you still gain from rearing them, after all, they remember what they are taught, and the reason an 8-year old is immature is lack of experience. If they remember the last 20 years, they are essentially adults in a pre-pubescent body. Binging won't last long, I'd imagine, as it is ultimately unsatisfying.
I can't see it as complete anarchy though. Even though it's the same day with no physical consequences you're going to remember if your neighbor started stealing your stuff. As an employer you're going to remember that Bob still showed up till you told him he didn't have to show up. People behaving badly are going to have a very annoying time moving forward. Everyone remembers they are jerks and they'll be shot daily, etc. You could still have elections and change leaders every few years if someone was corrupt. You could divorce your spouse but still have to wake up next to them each day.
I also think the world would eventually develop a type of memory based currency. Just like general teamwork and leadership was replaced by paying jobs, if there are memory-based ramifications of deeds eventually you would see magistrates tracking some kind of "currency" with their memory. This would be a progression from a system whereby people take turns helping one another enjoy their day more.
It's easy for people who remember more and more but what happens to people who are forgetting things? Does an alzheimer's patient who would have forgotten one word by the end of the day due to their condition worsening re-remember it after the reset? or does the loss continue day after day? If someone learns to play the piano they remember the next day but what happens to someone if you subject them to electro convulsive therapy and they lose some of their long term memory? Death may be temporary but might it be possible to wipe a victims memory/personality permanently into future loops.
If memory can be lost as well as gained I can imagine some weird forms of crime, punishment and dictatorship based on personality-wipes. If memory and trauma is retained then if someone is broken through torture in one loop do they remain broken? Where is the line between physical acts on the brain and the effects on memories that go back with you. If you're shot in the head but survive with personality changes what personality wakes up the previous morning?
I believe "law enforcement" (including vigilante groups) would form quickly, adapting methods of punishment to the current conditions (torture at first, memory wipes later). Although a lot of crimes would get much easier with self-erasing evidence, only eyewitnesses - if someone wearing a bacalava rapes a woman half an hour before midnight, there's little that can be done to identify them.
@Murphy The only way we can really explain how this would work is with the abstract concept of a 'soul'. Only human souls persist while everything else resets. However, the problems you mention are also problems with many peoples idea of 'soul'. In the end, we have to rely on suspension of disbelief.
@Murphy I'm not sure memory wipes would become a reality, only because I'd imagine you'd need special hardware that would take more than a day to build. Since your memory stays with you, what is preventing you from training yourself to wake up earlier. You'd have all your memories intact, so you could potentially wake up earlier and earlier in the day, it'd be like using an internal clock to wake up without an alarm. Or you could reject sleep altogether. ...but since no one really knows why we sleep, we still may require some form of sleep.
@GorchestopherH That's why I mentioned electro convulsive therapy: memory loss is a known side effect and the machines already exist in many hospitals and the general idea is pretty simple.
Thinking about crime and punishment: While people may still try to enforce house arrest as punishment, it's complicated by the fact that peoples locations are reset everyday. This can give some people an incredible advantage of being impossible to secure/detain. Remoteness: Though as Samuel says, being too remote (i.e. having few or no people within 24 hours travel) could or, more likely, would drive them insane.
Sometimes on this site you read someone's idea that is so good you instantly want to read the book and/or watch the film. This is one of those ideas. Actually this is the best of any of those. This is so simple yet so mind-bogglingly complex. I have a feeling I am going to be thinking about this for the rest of my life, which hopefully extends beyond today! :) Thanks for sharing it. Write it up and make some megabucks in the film rights (does a sequel to Groundhog Day even make sense? :)
@MarvMills Thanks a bunch! I will definitely be writing this up, but not right away. I'm finishing up a bunch of short stories, but this one is going to have to be a novel. There are a few quotes like yours and Rick Dever's that ought to go on the sleeve, and I'll definitely mention this forum in the thanks. :D
Imagine what aliens might discover if they landed the day after "groundhog day" (assuming this phenomenon affected only the earth). They'd see a growing civilization and then on one random day, the world's population going batsh*t crazy and decimating themselves. They'd be baffled for centuries to come.
A question I have: what is the criteria for the day to reset for someone? Does it reset at midnight? Does it reset when they go to sleep? The problem I see with this is, if this happens all over the world, people are going to sleep/having midnight at different times throughout a 24 hour period. Does Asia have their day reset before the Americas, for instance? And how would that work? If someone from America tried to contact someone in China after China has already had their day reset, what would happen?
Thanks @TimB, I didn't realize it was the first! It is my first ever gold badge though, and I'll wear it with pride.
@Joshua, it happens at exactly the same moment, whatever time it is. Scientists all over the world will coordinate with atomic clocks to discover that with certainty.
Discussion on question by MBurke: Tom…
Discussion on question by MBurke: Tom…