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“Hey Casey!” She waved and smiled. “Is that you?” He looked over in surprise, then reluctant recognition. “Yes! Remember me? We went to high school together! Been a long time! Wow, you look great! You musta lost 80 pounds!”

“Hey, Andrea. Yup, it’s me.”

“Casey, I barely recognized you! I remember you were trying everything to lose weight but… well…”

“Yeah, remember.” Casey shrugged. “I just couldn’t will myself to stay on a fitness machine. I’d always quit after 10 minutes or so if I could even make myself go to the gym. I tried all the usual tricks to distract me so I wouldn’t notice time passing. You know, listening to music, watching videos, writing science fiction, taint agonizer, parrot on the shoulder, zen, Jesus, followed those damn O-Missionary cult books, autohypnosis, autoerotic transfixiation, trained my dog to bite my –”

“Yeah, me too! Just put my dog down last week, couldn’t untrain him. I even tried those drugs. Zonitall. Externoff. Know Away World. Fundane. Pooh Bare. So what’s your secret?”

“I bought that brain zapper. Thalamaslam. You’re barely conscious. Just sit there and time flies and so do them calories.”

“And that’s safe for treadmills or ellipticals?”

“Oh, God, no. But it’s OK if you’re sitting down doing something simple, like a bike. I mean, a stationary, recumbent bike. With a seat belt. There was some blah blah about other side effects. And remember not to bring anything valuable, you wouldn’t even notice an epileptic pickpocket. Oh yeah, and of course wear a diaper and use an IV or something to stay hydrated. Oh and one more thing bring some eye drops because your eyes will sting afterward from all the sweat.”

“Wow. Thanks! Hey, you coming to our high school reunion?”

“Um. I hadn’t thought about it. But I mean, sure, I guess I’ll go. Don’t wanna miss our 20^th reunion.”

“Casey, we graduated from high school 30 years ago.”. 

Author Commentary

It’s now the newest story about memory revision, like “Better reCollectIons” or other short-shorts like But you Can unsee It. This story is more about zoning out and not forming memories in the first place – kinda the opposite of PowerStreaming, in which people zone out so they can remember content much more effectively. 

 

Realism

This is another story that’s a loose metaphor for what we do today. I’ve spent a lot of time on ellipticals, treadmills, bikes, and stairmasters. I usually see other people doing the same thing I’m doing – trying to pass the time by watching videos, listening to music, chatting, or otherwise distracting themselves. It’s anti-Zen. People might instead focus inward, but then they might get sick of being on a machine and go eat a burger or something.

It’s an interesting contrast to hiking. When I’m on trails, I hardly ever see people with any distractions. They aren’t using earbuds nor cell phones. Neither am I. It’s an interesting contrast to being on a machine. 

Is the neuroscience realistic? I can’t think of how to safely implement it now, although the names in the story belie some ideas about how it might be done. 

Hope

Up to the reader. Would it be good to lose some memories in exchange for being fit? 

Edit History

I wrote this in Jan 2025 and posted it on Mar 2025. 

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