My Current Thoughts on Copper Compounding

[Trusk'our he/him]

Copper Compounding is a bit weird, as we don't know exactly how it works right now, but I think I have an idea:

Since a Feruchemical charge overwrites the Allomantic charge when Compounding, I think that Compounding copper should duplicate any memories in the burned Metalmind. Each memory has its own code that determines what it holds, so logically the code should be evenly duplicated when Compounding just as with any other kind of metal. 

However, based on my thoughts in this thread about storing stronger memories, I think that doing this would have the side effect of making those memories "stick" to the mind of the Feruchemist better; since you're effectively repeating the memory many times over when you Compound it, it's likely that it will do as real memories would and the neural connection would be strengthened through the "repetition" of that memory.

[+hwiles]

6 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Copper Compounding is a bit weird, as we don't know exactly how it works right now, but I think I have an idea:

Since a Feruchemical charge overwrites the Allomantic charge when Compounding, I think that Compounding copper should duplicate any memories in the burned Metalmind. Each memory has its own code that determines what it holds, so logically the code should be evenly duplicated when Compounding just as with any other kind of metal. 

However, based on my thoughts in this thread about storing stronger memories, I think that doing this would have the side effect of making those memories "stick" to the mind of the Feruchemist better; since you're effectively repeating the memory many times over when you Compound it, it's likely that it will do as real memories would and the neural connection would be strengthened through the "repetition" of that memory.

This is an oft-repeated fan theory that I think is essentially correct, but the actual details of why it works are still up for debate. The best on-page evidence that exists for it that I'm aware of is Rashek's perfect-recall: he seems to legitimately be able to immediately recognize the face and deeds of anyone that he has ever laid eyes on, and thus far noone has been able to trace any of his other powers, skills, abilities back to something that would facilitate this.

The simplest and easiest explanation: he was literally just walking around smoking throw-away copperminds (with nothing important in them, maybe just a few randomly generated numbers even) on a slow-burn for his entire 1,024 years as a Sliver and, for metaphysical reasons, having essentially empty F:copper allomantically smoked into one's brain every second of every day very simply reinforces memory creation to the point that it meaningfully approaches perfect-recollection.

The more complicated and less useful, but also less obviously broken explanation: burning copperminds only reinforces the memories stored in those minds in the user's brain, and Rashek simply practiced an evening ritual of smoking a mind filled with the faces of any new people that he wanted dead and why.

Always interesting to hear folks argue and advocate for how they think our Lord Sociopath managed to keep all those nobles sorted and ordered between his naughty and nice lists without ever having to look up a single record. 

[Trusk'our he/him]

3 hours ago, hwiles said:

This is an oft-repeated fan theory that I think is essentially correct, but the actual details of why it works are still up for debate.

Yeah, my main reasoning here is that a lot of the hypotheses given for Compounding copper say one thing is possible, such as it duplicates a memory, let's you remember it longer, or maybe let's you relive it (actually, this is kind of what Wax did when tapping Kelsier's Coppermind, and I think this might be a similar example. Tapping multiple duplicates may make the experience more like a vision and less of a recalling of events).

I'm proposing that Compounding copper effectively does several of these things, not just one as it's usually been thought. No, a copper Compounder couldn't choose to Compound differently through Intent or anything, but the way they tap duplicates of memories may allow for several theories to be used in practice. 

Additionally, I reason that duplicating memories is what copper Compounding does because it is by far the most reasonable assumption in my mind; all other known Compounding uses the exact same mechanic, which suggests copper should be the same.

Edited August 24 by Trusk'our

[alder24]

10 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

However, based on my thoughts in this thread about storing stronger memories, I think that doing this would have the side effect of making those memories "stick" to the mind of the Feruchemist better; since you're effectively repeating the memory many times over when you Compound it, it's likely that it will do as real memories would and the neural connection would be strengthened through the "repetition" of that memory.

Couldn’t that just be Feruchemical copper savantism? Instead of sticking specific memories into your mind, it would slowly expand your memorization abilities and increase how long a memory can last without degradation.

3 hours ago, hwiles said:

This is an oft-repeated fan theory that I think is essentially correct, but the actual details of why it works are still up for debate. The best on-page evidence that exists for it that I'm aware of is Rashek's perfect-recall: he seems to legitimately be able to immediately recognize the face and deeds of anyone that he has ever laid eyes on, and thus far noone has been able to trace any of his other powers, skills, abilities back to something that would facilitate this.

What if Rashek just duralumin compound his copperminds, whenever he needed? He would get an instant flash of all memories stored in them, one set of duplicated memories would be immediately stored in a new coppermind, while the other would just remain in his mind.

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

Couldn’t that just be Feruchemical copper savantism? Instead of sticking specific memories into your mind, it would slowly expand your memorization abilities and increase how long a memory can last without degradation.

I mean, possibly, but I don't feel that would be necessary. Repetition is a good way to remember something permanently IRL, so I figure the same would apply to Feruchemy. 

[alder24]

36 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

I mean, possibly, but I don't feel that would be necessary. Repetition is a good way to remember something permanently IRL, so I figure the same would apply to Feruchemy. 

Yes, it will work if Rashek were to constantly keep one outcome of copper compounding in his mind, while storing the other in a metalmind - but if he were to store all his compound memories, they're gone from his mind. The question is did he want to remember everything all the time? Moreover, how much time would he have to spend to compound more than 1000 years worth of memories? He had to do it fairly regularly and often because he remembered Kelsier and recent events perfectly. Would he want to spend every single moment of his life compounding copper alongside Atium?

[Trusk'our he/him]

14 minutes ago, alder24 said:

The question is did he want to remember everything all the time? 

Highly doubtful. 

Remembering what you had for breakfast with perfect clarity isn't exactly high on the priority list.

15 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Moreover, how much time would he have to spend to compound more than 1000 years worth of memories? 

I doubt he would have been doing it all the time, personally. 

If I were in his position, I'd really just Compound the memories I thought I'd need for later, like @hwiles's aforementioned naughty and nice nobles list.

18 minutes ago, alder24 said:

He had to do it fairly regularly and often because he remembered Kelsier and recent events perfectly. Would he want to spend every single moment of his life compounding copper alongside Atium?

I mean, it's not like it would take too much effort.

All Allomancers we've seen can burn metals as easily as breathing; you can choose to do it consciously and control it more, but it really doesn't take any personal effort beyond swallowing the metal to burn it Allomantically. 

Plus, you know, Rashek's got duralumin. 

[alder24]

1 minute ago, Trusk'our said:

I doubt he would have been doing it all the time, personally. 

If I were in his position, I'd really just Compound the memories I thought I'd need for later, like @hwiles's aforementioned naughty and nice nobles list.

It's not about if he wanted to do it, it's if he had to be doing this. Compounding takes time - it's just burning metals. If he had 1000 years of memories to Compound, even if he were to filter some of them out, it would still take a considerable amount of time to burn all those Copperminds. If he were to keep his memories in the constant refreshed state to the point of perfectly engraving them in his mind, he would need to Compound everything very, very often. And with that amount of memories, he would have to do it all the time. Would he care enough to do it at all?

7 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Plus, you know, Rashek's got duralumin. 

And that's how we going back to my initial idea. If I were Rashek, bored out of my mind, in a state of extreme apathy, I wouldn't want to spend all my time to Compound 1000 years of memories and keep re-remembering potentially painful, or boring things. I would only Compound everything with duralumin just to check if I should remember someone that just killed my Inquisitor.