I've often wondered, what's the point of reincarnation? What good does it do you to have lived previous lives if you can't remember them? Of what value is this life if nothing learned here can be applied to future existences? Sure, the believers of reincarnation often claim that often memories of those ancient lives survive death into the future, and numerous ancedotal evidences are produced, but since since I haven't personally experienced these memories they are essentially useless to me. It is also proposed that we learn things in past lives which influence our present one, even if we don't remember them. There is also talk of some sort of evolution of the soul as it cycles from one existence to another. I see no evidence for it and no point in it, the whole concept of learning is inextricably linked with memory. Without the latter, the former may as well not exist.

I derive no comfort in knowing that I may be reborn again and again, it is not my soul I am concerned about, it is my personality, my consciousness, my ego that counts. Consider a society where condemned criminals are given the option to have their memories erased and to start over, from scratch (I believe several science fiction novels have been based on this theme, where a drug or treatment removes the criminal's memory without destroying his body). If I were offered that choice, I would see no point in taking advantage of that treatment. The new ER, painfully being re-taught what he needed to survive in his reincarnated existence, would have no recall of his past history and experiences. But that is precisely who I am. The physical body and the psychological propensities I might still retain from my previous life would not be me, they might as wel belong to someone else.

Consider another example from science fiction. A time traveler, on a trip to the past, meets himself, not at a younger age, but from a departure from an even more distant future. A variation of this theme is the man who runs across his duplicate copy, perhaps as a result of a transporter accident as occurred to Captain Kirk in one episode of Star Trek. Your duplicate might as well be someone else, and if you are separated from them, they are someone else.

In one of Silverberg's novels, a technology exists to make recordings of one's personality (complete with memories) which then be downloaded into other bodies. These "personae" cannot control their new body, but they experience everything it does, and they can communicate with the host soul of the brain they are moved into. People have their persona recorded periodically, so that they can have some form of immortality, while recipients seek out the personae of loved ones, or of particularly capable individuals they can consult as allies or advisers or companions. To keep the memories of each persona up-to-date, they are periodically re-recorded, so if the individual dies a persona from a time just prior to his death is available for transplant. It is part of the law of this future society that when a persona is recorded (about every six months, as I recall) all earlier copies are erased and never used, although of course, the personae of great minds, skilled financiers, etc. are in high demand and a black market in bootleg personae soon develops, and indeed plays a big role in the plot of the novel.

Again, the idea of multiple copys of the same soul arises, diverging and going on in separate directions. Essentially, the opposite of reincarnation, where the same persona replays over and over again but without shared experiences of itself. Parallel lives as opposed to serial ones. The idea of diverging copies of a personality, each with different experiences, is indistintinguishable from that of unique personalities. Using this as a guide, a reincarnated personality without its prior memories is also a different personality, and the whole concept of reincarnation becomes a contradiction in terms. It just doesn't make sense.