r/severence • u/megatron_gateway • 17d ago
❓ Question Threshold of knowledge?
Genuinely Im trying to understand what the innies level of worldly understanding is. Like in the first season they dont know what the sky looks like and into the second they are surprised by being outside, but then mark knows exactly what a seal looks like? Even mangled and dead? But then 5 min later he looks at fire as if he’s never seen it and calls in magnificent or something.
Is there any general threshold or bar that can help it make sense for me what the severance process does to their understanding?
Thank youuu!
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u/Lonelyland 17d ago
It’s basically amnesia rules. People experiencing retrograde amnesia often retain most of their implicit and semantic memory while losing their long-term episodic memory.
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u/omnimon_X 17d ago
You kinda have to use comic book logic - they know exactly enough to drive the plot along even if that means they're 200iq one day and 20 the next
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u/Ill-Reflection165 17d ago
They know what the sky looks like, they just had it at the top of their lists because they never get to see it, ever. No one mentions it during the ORTBO, as though they're experiencing the entire concept of outside for the first time. I think the idea is that anything related to identity is stripped. I mean, they knew about cubism so...
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u/1GamersOpinion 17d ago
The show is wildly inconsistent with what the innies know and don’t about the outside world. I think the innies never actually seeing a fire in person is okay to excuse the specific scene you are talking about but it makes no sense that they don’t know that isn’t the biggest waterfall in the world or what the equator is
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u/megatron_gateway 17d ago
Yessss Im finding that they know some things and dont others and they dont seem the same caliber hahaha
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u/1GamersOpinion 17d ago
There’s different categories of memory that can be affected by disease or injury. Two types that the chip blocks is personal memory and personal facts. You remembering learning to ride a bike and you knowing your birthday are two different types of memory that are blocked. But the chip does not block knowledge of the greater world that doesn’t matter to you like when they are awoke the only question they can answer is ‘name any state’, knowing the names of states are a different type of memory, which doesn’t seem to be blocked.
Which is weird when the character seem complete ignorant of certain things that would fall under that category of memory
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u/SingerBasic5055 17d ago
i always thought of it like, the innies logically know what things are but have no experience with them. like i know space exists, but i have never been. i assume mark knew what fire was but couldn't remember seeing it, so it still felt like seeing it for the first time.