To vastly simplify things to what is relevant here, the character I'm writing is a superhuman being of sorts who until very recently used to be a normal human. And the way that superhumans work in this setting is that their powers and abilities are often created in response to, and in defense against, the environment or situation that triggered their transformation. And the "environment or situation" that this character became a metahuman in was having his mind almost totally wiped. Memory, language, knowledge, and all skills more complicated than what the average animal would be capable of, all gone completely. He was reduced to the mental state of a confused, frightened and feral animal. As a result, while this did nothing for any of this lost knowledge, his transformation gave him, among other things, a nigh-impenetrably resilient mind and a perfect and infinite memory. Everything he learns and experiences from here on out, he has perfect recall for. He isn't superhumanly intelligent or quick-thinking, but everything he learns, he remembers forever. He also doesn't need to sleep, and couldn't even if he wanted to. In response to the assault his mind experienced before his transformation, he is now in a permanent state of conscious lucidity, impossible to knock out or mentally hinder in any way. We're going to be introduced to this character fairly soon after his transformation into this state, before he has even re-learned a language, and while the most daunting task at the moment is how to convincingly portray the learning process of someone with the intelligence of a young adult, the knowledge of an animal, and the memory retention of a god, I was also thinking it would be wise to get some input and advice for not-so-obvious things I should probably keep in mind when writing him, things that would make his experience and thought process radically different from our own. Any thoughts?
1st thought: "But sleep is when we process memories..." 2nd thought: "Oh, Ok, I get it, That's exactly why he doesn't need to sleep anymore. His brain works differently now and sleep is unnecessary. So you might want to bring up this point and explain it in the story. Other people will think it as well. What do you mean by I suppose it's only the word lucidity that throws me a bit, since it usually means you know you're dreaming while in the dream. Of course there is a more generic meaning, just a state of clear awareness i suppose. I'm probably warped by my own interest in lucid dreaming and all the study and practice I've done. I'm not sure which meaning general readers would take from it. If you use that term in the story you might want to be sure it's explained. Of course, I suppose the mere fact that he no longer sleeps or dreams covers that. Another factor, there's a widely-believed idea that without the ability to sleep we'd go insane. You should definitely explore this. That's all I got right now.
Right, sorry. To clarify, I mean that he's immune to all artificial influences on his mind. Drugs won't impair his brain, he can't be affected by mind control, mental illusions don't affect him, things of that nature. His mind also can't be read by psychics.
Almost skipped this, but it's too good to pass up. I'm not claiming to be an expert on any of this, by the way. This is just stuff I've picked up here and there. Babies quite possibly have the best potential to learn among living creatures. Due to their total lack of prior knowledge combining with the brain of the most intellectually advanced species on Earth, they can learn almost anything far easier than adults can. Multiple languages? Check. Advanced musical skills? Check. The names of every single president of the U.S. as well as recognizing their faces? I've seen it firsthand with my half-brother. The biggest hamper to a child's potential to learn is their memory and less-than-perfect pattern recognition, as the brain is still underdeveloped. That isn't an issue with your character, however, due to his god-like memory. Taking into account that his brain is fully developed, your character should pretty much learn anything instantly for a while, because the fully-developed human brain has amazing pattern recognition, which is critical to learning. He wouldn't have any trouble learning a couple languages, or social queues, or even how to act like a normal human. He has no prior knowledge to get in the way of learning something totally new. He has a memory better than any computer on the planet. He has the fully developed brain of the smartest beings on Earth. Even with his amnesia setting him back, he should quickly become one of the more intelligent and capable people in your story.
This is definitely interesting. I would start to consider what sort of emotional baggage he is going to develop while they start figure everything out. And having a great memory may not be foolproof against biases and logical fallacies. I could see this character potentially having self control issues, especially in social situations.
