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Scientists Erase Specific Memories In Mice
Ostracus writes "It sounds like science fiction, but scientists say it might one day be possible to erase undesirable memories from the brain, selectively and safely. After exposing mice to emotionally powerful stimuli, such as a mild shock to their paws, the scientists then observed how well or poorly the animals subsequently recalled the particular trauma as their brain's expression of CaMKII was manipulated up and down. When the brain was made to overproduce CaMKII at the exact moment the mouse was prodded to retrieve the traumatic memory, the memory wasn't just blocked, it appeared to be fully erased."
Screw that. I want to erase desirable memories from people's brains. Think how easy it would be to make office workers stay later when they can't remember any of the good stuff that happens when they leave the office?
Or for shits and giggles, how about removing all traces of memories of sex for the unwed father of a child? Would make the paternity suit industry tons of coin, I bet.
But enough of the super-villain type stuff.
How abvout erasing the memory of the first time you had warm apple pie? Then, you get to try it for the first time every night.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
ah but that's the thing, i lost about 6 months all told of memory.
the doctor wasn't really up on his paranoid schizophrenia, and he said that the memories were probably repressed. no, no they weren't they were gone completely.
the last time it happened i only lost 3 days, i was on a different medicine then though, and there are some files of what i said and did that are very weird. my explanation for what happened was hackers broke into my computer and used the wifi connection to directly control my thoughts. i don't bring that up to my doctor of course. wifi is everywhere, and hacked computers are a dime a dozen. which lead to my going all hard wired internet with hardened firewalls that are half-open and have specific configurations settings for each pc and each os that connects to the hardened firewalls, and oh i don't run my computers at night.
but the doctor just thinks i am a computer hypochondriac, in addition to being paranoid schizophrenic.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
What with humans being rather complex, mentally, Information may not be stored only once, or it could be fragmented.
The only way to selectively destroy memory would be to track down all instances of it, which I would say is pretty unlikely in the human brain. Same goes for most other primates.
Amnesiacs typically have a non uniform memory loss. Some things they can recall, but not others. Two people with identical brain damage can easily experience different levels of amnesia. Producing a reliable general method for memory deletion is almost certainly impossible.
Short term memory disruption, and the prevention of moving short term memories into long term memory is easier to achieve.
If you want to experience it, dislocate your elbow and go to hospital. They'll give you a nice pill, you'll scream while they manhandle your arm back into position, and five minutes later you won't remember any of it. I've not experienced it, but I've relocated a fair few arms. Its funny when the people wake up and ask when your going to start.
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
I would love to be able to re-experience the magic of reading some of my favorite fiction as if for the first time.
I'd much rather experience the magic of something genuinely new.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
It will be interesting, to one day see if removal of a traumatic memory can help with psychological issues that may stem from it.
For example, can erasing war-time memories lessen PTSD, and to what extent? Or would said person simply exhibit the same symptoms and have no idea why?
That is the most amazing and terrible idea I have ever heard. How wonderful would it be to help soldiers not feel guilty about doing their duty and yet so utterly terrifying. Part of what makes war a "last resort" option is the horror that it causes. If we removed the pain of war, perhaps it would become far to easy to wage it.
While I do not wish PTSD upon any person, and wish that no person should ever fight in a war ever again, I cannot condone taking the sting out of war. Contraptions like remote bombing drones, cruise missiles and robotic fighters remove one side from the killing and take away the reality and the horror of war. War is terrible, awful, hellish and traumatic. The trauma and horror are what make us abhor it. Every time we remove one of those elements, we make it easier for us to wage war. It also makes it easier for us to kill them, whomever they may be.
Anything that makes it easier for us to kill them takes away a little bit of our humanity. Robotic killing machines, remorseless soldiers and supid ideas like Rods From God all take the killer too far away from their victim. It's significantly easier to maim and kill when it's a glob of pixels on the screen. Seeing and knowing the person you are killing makes it much more difficult. War should remain messy and terrible; it's the mess and the horror of it that makes us think twice about waging it.
This one's tricky. You have to use imaginary numbers, like eleventeen... --Hobbes