Yesterday, I had a coronectomy: the top halves of my bottom wisdom were teeth surgically removed. It was my first time being sedated, and I didn’t know what to expect. While I was unconscious during the surgery, the hour after surgery turned out to be a fascinating experience, because I was completely lucid but had almost zero short-term memory.

My girlfriend, who had kindly agreed to accompany me to the surgery, was with me during that hour. And so — apparently against the advice of the nurses — I spent that whole hour talking to her and asking her questions.

The biggest reason I find my experience fascinating is that it has mostly answered a question that I’ve had about myself for quite a long time: how deterministic am I?

In computer science, we say that an algorithm is deterministic if it's not random [...]

The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:

Source:

Linkpost URL:
https://ericneyman.wordpress.com/2024/05/04/my-hour-of-memoryless-lucidity/

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.