I find Leonard’s statement of us requiring to have some sort of mirror to remind us of ourselves to be quite agreeable. Our memories are good enough on their own, but they’re definitely not perfect. Some of us have very dormant memories that can’t be called forth from our will. However something tangible like a photo can trigger that dormant memory straight away. For example, in front of my desk I have a photo hanging in front of me on my wall, it’s a photo of me in the 4th grade smiling and holding a tree sapling. Looking at this photo it instantly triggered my memory, it reminded me of what I wanted to know at the time. At the time there was a lesson for the students to respect nature, so each of the students were given a sapling and wrote their names on the pot. So when my photo was taken I wondered to myself, “what will this sapling look like when I grow up?” And to this day I wonder what happened to it, whether it died or is blossoming somewhere as a tree. But had I not seen this photo on right now, that memory would’ve likely stayed somewhere in the back of my mind, never to be called forth.
Although Leonard’s case is rather different since he requires these mirrors at all times to remind himself of his objective, ultimately his mirrors are ultimately faulty. There is a clear difference between the way he uses things as mirrors and how a normal person uses these mirrors and that’s context or dormant memory if you will. Look back to my previous mention of my photo, I know the context/history behind it because I partially remember that event taking place. But that isn’t how Leonard’s mirrors work, his tattoos are just text on his body and his photos are just that but with some writing. He doesn’t know the context of why he got the tattoos or the full story of each of his summarized photos. To put this in a better perspective, let’s say I write on my photo saying, “held sapling because of a lesson” and I erased my memory then looked at the photo once more. The only thing that I would know about that photo is what I’ve written and nothing else. Not how we wrote our names on the pot nor what I wondered at the time, only my written text. And that’s the thing with Leonard he becomes some sort of person who only acts on a whim based on his photos/tattoos. Without that context he gets himself into trouble, like how he enters the bar with the car and suit of the person he just killed.
Without my mirrors, I feel like I wouldn’t be any different. I feel like I’d miss out on some old memories, but I would still be the same type of person.
Regarding how the mirror system’s relation to Hume’s theory. These are fundamentally the same, as Hume writes, “…I may venture to affirm of the rest of mankind, that they are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.” Each photo or tattoo that Leonard writes are still his perceptions despite having no memory of the photo/tattoo, yet each of those photos/tattoos successively and indefinitely move him to the next photo/tattoo. Which is not much different as how our memories continually influence us and make us more memories based on that memory.
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