Erase your Memory in 3, 2, 1 …
By DAVID ORTEZ on October 23, 2008
Remember the pen used in Men in Black to erase a person’s memory after they saw an alien? That movie was so 10 years ago; let’s try something more recent.
How about Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind where two lovebirds traumatized by their relationship, decide to wipe their memories clean of each other?
Well, it seems science has caught up with Hollywood. Scientists have been successful at selecting and safely removing specific memories from a mouse’s brain.
Joe Z. Tsien, brain scientist and co-director of the Brain & Behavior Discovery Institute at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine, claims, “While memories are great teachers and obviously crucial for survival and adaptation, selectively removing incapacitating memories, such as traumatic war memories or an unwanted fear, could help many people live better lives”
Hypothetically, this may be applied to humans via a drug ingested as pill. This will target a selected memory and erase it. This can be used for such benevolent causes as erasing traumatic events such as rape, molestation, war, death etc.
The dangers are evident as well. As science challenges the day-to-day affairs of our life, morals and ethics that would never have been entertained now seem like the norm.
If you could would you want to erase a part of your memory? Why or Why not?
