Chris' memory or lack therof -

[hm yeah]

Something I don't see discussed much (I guess it slips our minds a lot) is how Chris is extremely forgetful to a truly worrisome degree. He can remember a lot of stuff from his childhood, I guess (I don't know, maybe. Whatever) (It's probably almost entirely shit that doesn't matter, in addition to false memories), but it really seems that his mind is always in a haze. Shockingly enough.

The very best example is the Kacey call regarding the job interview. He forgot the events of the past few hours. And it wasn't background noise, either.

What determines what Chris will or won't remember? How much fake sugar might he consume? What serious conditions is this a symptom of?

Is this the primary reason why he's such a massive fucking dumbshit?

Or is he just too lazy to remember anything.

Occam's razor,

 

[Kosher Dill]

I think it's a combination of laziness, and his low intellect making it hard for him to know what exactly he should be paying attention to. His whole life, hes only needed to "get through" a conversation so he could go back to sleeping, Goosebumps, or vidya, so in that respect it's not surprising he forgets things he's said. He just wants to hit A and skip the dialogue boxes in the game of life, and he happens to live a lifestyle where that's possible.
He can still probably recite all the movesets of the 151 original Pokemon though, I doubt he has any sort of memory defect.

 

[Tubular Monkey]

Chris makes up his past as he goes along. He takes a thread that was only semi-truthful to begin with, and weaves a tapestry of insane persecution. Chris's main problem is that he believes his own lies. Chris is the living embodiment of cognitive dissonance. Fantasy becomes reality at a whim, and he doesn't even seem to realize it.

 

[Bridechu]

A major hallmark of autism (and ADHD) is not paying attention to the right stuff due to distraction and disinterest. I kind of sympathize with Chris, because sometimes I can have an entire conversation with someone and remember every detail about the poster behind them, but very little about what they actually said. For something as big as a job interview, however, it's obvious this impacts his life and makes it hard for him to function. He was probably thinking about Sonichu or the interviewer's tits or something during the process and as a result gave bad or nonsensical answers. Chris claims to have a photographic memory, and it might be true for stuff like Sonic level secrets and stuff, but it's not applicable to practical things.

It's also possible that Chris lies about not remembering things when he doesn't want to talk about them.

 

[CatParty]

he believes what he wants to believe. truth be damned, his mind is closed on the subject.

 

[Pinhead]

It's possible that his memory functions have deteriorated with age, accelerated by him not stimulating his brain to any degree other than "Dere uh.. dere's da new pony dere."

When he was young, every new experience was at least stimulating his brain to some degree. Since he reached adulthood, though, he's had no experience of the rest of the world, and has remained a shut-in. His sedentary lifestyle, and especially his diet have likely contributed to the decay of what mental functions he had.

He's now reached a point where he can't fix that. He knows his life was better when he was young (despite all the bitching) but he's unable to articulate why it was better, and it's likely because when he was young, he was at least getting the stimuli he needed.

Somebody should get Chris some crossword books or some sudoku, clear out those cobwebs.

 

[Sakamoto]

Somebody should get Chris some crossword books or some sudoku, clear out those cobwebs.

Nice idea, but games in a book would never be able to compete with PSN for Chris' attention.

Chris remembers what he wants to remember. It's a good thing he has so many people archiving everything he does recently so he'll have help to remember later.

 

[theonecrust]

I think that part of a symptoms of autism is that of an extremely narrow range of focus. Chris like other autistics is only able to focus on one thing at a time, so that when a subject is changed on him, he moves on from the previous discussion and concentrates his mind on what's current. Later on he can remember things a'la Random-access humor.

 

[Pinhead]

It's a good thing he has so many people archiving everything he does recently so he'll have help to remember later.

"No! NO! Even though I uploaded those photos, they're all damn photoshops by the damn trolls! IGNORE ALL GOOGLE RESULTS."

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

There was a phone call once a long time ago (I forget who, or even what saga) where the person was trying to remember some Star Wars game but couldn't think of the name, but as soon as they described it just a tiny bit, Chris was all "oh yeah, you must be talking about LegoStarWarsEpisodeIIITheCloneWarsDirectorsEditionWithExclusiveObiWanDownloadableContent" or something to that effect - he rambled off the name perfectly as if it was all one word, then proceeded to sperg in very fine and accurate detail about the game's features.

Chris doesn't have a defective memory. He just doesn't understand why he should have to remember or care about things that don't immediately entertain him. So he doesn't.

 

[Overcast]

A major hallmark of autism (and ADHD) is not paying attention to the right stuff due to distraction and disinterest. I kind of sympathize with Chris, because sometimes I can have an entire conversation with someone and remember every detail about the poster behind them, but very little about what they actually said. For something as big as a job interview, however, it's obvious this impacts his life and makes it hard for him to function. He was probably thinking about Sonichu or the interviewer's tits or something during the process and as a result gave bad or nonsensical answers. Chris claims to have a photographic memory, and it might be true for stuff like Sonic level secrets and stuff, but it's not applicable to practical things.

It's also possible that Chris lies about not remembering things when he doesn't want to talk about them.

Same here. I find myself re-reading certain bits in a book, game, textbook , ect. a few times because my mind often wanders and I feel like I missed important information.

But yeah, I assume part of it is also attributed to laziness. He doesn't want to take the time to remember what happened to him earlier so he claims he doesn't remember just so he can get back to what he was doing.

 

[Pinhead]

There was a phone call once a long time ago (I forget who, or even what saga) where the person was trying to remember some Star Wars game but couldn't think of the name, but as soon as they described it just a tiny bit, Chris was all "oh yeah, you must be talking about LegoStarWarsEpisodeIIITheCloneWarsDirectorsEditionWithExclusiveObiWanDownloadableContent" or something to that effect - he rambled off the name perfectly as if it was all one word, then proceeded to sperg in very fine and accurate detail about the game's features.

Chris doesn't have a defective memory. He just doesn't understand why he should have to remember or care about things that don't immediately entertain him. So he doesn't.

Fair point. I tend to overthink these things. I usually write a spiel about how Chris might think this or that, but really it just comes down to Atsimu.

 

[asperhes]

Chris himself believes that he has a photographic memory. It's one of his superpowers. Of course, he doesn't know what this term means.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Chris himself believes that he has a photographic memory. It's one of his superpowers. Of course, he doesn't know what this term means.

When challenged on it and asked why he couldn't remember this or that basic thing, even if it was important, sometimes he would come up with some bullshit that it literally meant he could only remember pictures well.

Literally just pictures, which was his excuse for why he couldn't remember what people looked like.

 

[BigAltheGreat921]

I think he's incredibly selective about what he remembers and forgets.

 

[drmccoy]

This plugs into a few things. I am of the opinion that during the Father Call and many other calls, including the ABL calls, Chris is playing video games. You can hear Portal very audibly in the background in the Father Call. He decides that listening is hard and decides to play some vidya. Only when China is at stake does he try harder, which gets him nowhere anyway.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

^The Portal thing was actually some notification thing on Mr. Devoria's skype. Chris would never play Portal.

He probably was at least scrolling through the PSN store at the time, though.

 

[QI 541]

Chris forgets either because it's not important to him, in the same way you might not remember what you ate for dinner yesterday. And also because he distorts the truth in his own mind so he looks like the victim. Thanks to his autism, he still ends up looking like the bad guy after giving his distorted version of events.

 

[Anchuent Christory]

There's a couple of things at play here; first, for Chris to remember something, it has to have some sort of emotional impact on him, so he loves Pokemon and that allows him remember all them all and their traits. Or the opposite, where something he hates happens. Basically, you have to hit his mind really fucking hard to lodge anything in his memory.
In all fairness, this is pretty much pure autism, but then he should have had the help he needed, or desire to be helped to overcome this and we all know how that story ends.

Secondly, there's his habit of censoring his past, where he gradually changes past events around in his head until the scenario plays out in a way that's more favorable to him. Chris is a massive liar, but mainly to himself.

I suppose there's a third aspect as well, where he's just so fucking lazy and has no desire to better himself. I mean, what exactly does he need to remember? by this point his life is just a series of mechanical actions with little to no variation.

 

[drmccoy]

^The Portal thing was actually some notification thing on Mr. Devoria's skype. Chris would never play Portal.

He probably was at least scrolling through the PSN store at the time, though.

Ahhhh, I sorta figured that but never knew. That makes more sense now. And I think you're right. He's definitely using some media while talking.