Scientists On Track To Ease Painful Memories

[Oneironaut Zero]

Article ...Wow. Imagine that.

[Original Poster]

Reminds me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind There's 1 comment Yes...I believe it's called beer.

[Oneironaut Zero]

There's 1 comment LOL. I didn't even see that.

[O'nus]

I've been waiting for amygdala manipulation. I swear though, the way this functions reminds me exactly of Valkyrie from Max Payne. ~

[LucidFlanders]

Unless it's EXTREMLY BAD why bother forgetting?

[Volcon]

Something dosen't have to be bad, a childhood experiance with spiders that wasen't extremely bad could lead to arachnaphobia.

[O'nus]

People will always have bad experiences and bad memories and its a fantasy to think otherwise. It's always more beneficial to learn to adapt and cope than avoid and deny. ~

[Kushna Mufeed]

This is stupid. It's a sure fire way to end up NOT learning from our mistakes.

[nicki]

its amazing the thing scientists come up with these days.. if something like that could actually be pulled off, this world would be a really different place. i mean, think about it, some people go insane after a traumatic event. If this procedure could actually work it could help some people get their life back.

[Half/Dreaming]

Bad, BAD idea. Painful experinces are what make us emotionally capable of handling future bad experiences. Don't fuck around with the human brain. Its going to get out of control so fast.

[spockman]

Isn't one of the first things psychologists do when people have repressed memories is to try and make the patient aware of them, no matter how crappy it is? Sure, the person hurts. And they have to work through it. But eventually that problem is worked through, emotional consititution is benefitted. Besides, I don't like the idea of anyone having the power to erase parts of my memory. Imagine hte government with that kind of control. With the power to suppress the parts of your brain that control phobias, theoretically couldn't they do it with other parts? ::Shudder:: I'm really scared of it, though. Honestly, it sounds kind of science fictiony. We can't even substitute neural bridges, (myalin,) much less alter specific parts of the brain to forget a given memory!

[drewmandan]

This is stupid. It's a sure fire way to end up NOT learning from our mistakes. Are you referring to how it was presented in the article, or how it may be used in the future? If we're talking about removing a memory of being raped as a child, what's the downside? How is that a 'mistake'? The child made a 'mistake' by being near a pedophile?

[Kushna Mufeed]

Obviously that's no mistake on the part of the victim. Would it be wise to erase such a memory? I'm no expert, but I'd think probably not. Life is just one big learning experience. It's better to face the past and come to terms with it rather than making it disappear. And I was referring more to how it could easily be abused in the future. I can imagine people whose lives have gone completely FUBAR and they'd want to completely erase their mind so they can start anew.

[drewmandan]

Obviously that's no mistake on the part of the victim. Would it be wise to erase such a memory? I'm no expert, but I'd think probably not. Life is just one big learning experience. It's better to face the past and come to terms with it rather than making it disappear. And I was referring more to how it could easily be abused in the future. I can imagine people whose lives have gone completely FUBAR and they'd want to completely erase their mind so they can start anew. I agree that it can be abused, but it's a well-known fact that child abuse damages people to the extent that they go on to become abusive. I think society would benefit greatly from an extremely judicious use of this procedure.

[Kushna Mufeed]

What they should work on is how to recover lost memories. It would work great for things like crime investigation or writing bibliography. Also, implanting memories. Wouldn't it be great to implant a years worth of school in your brain in a matter of minutes? Just throwing some ideas out there...

[drewmandan]

What they should work on is how to recover lost memories. It would work great for things like crime investigation or writing bibliography. Also, implanting memories. Wouldn't it be great to implant a years worth of school in your brain in a matter of minutes? Just throwing some ideas out there... The learning process requires that the memories be integrated through conscious effort, rather than just plopped in. If they are just plopped in, they won't be accessible to the person. However, now that I'm thinking about it, there may be a way around the problem. You could organize strong neural links between the memories sequentially, so that if the person thinks of one memory in the chain, they immediately think of the next, and the next, and so on, like what programmers call a "tape". Then the person need only integrate the very first memory, and then to access the rest they have to go through the sequence starting at #1. But over time, they will objectively learn the positions of the more important pieces in the tape and then additional non-sequential links will be formed. But there's one problem with this scheme: memory links decay over time as they're not used. So the person would need to regularly 'run through' the tape of implants, putting each memory in their consciousness for a few seconds to reinforce the chain, at least until they know the entire chain semantically.

[spockman]

This thread reminds me fo something... Oh yeah! The matrix. Implanting memories would get rid of the need for discipline in learning. Knowledge without wisdom can be a dangerous thing. Ever heard, 'a man who gains his wealth quickly, loses it quickly. A man who works for it, retains it.' The same cocept applies. Knowledge that is gained gradually through work serves a better chance of being used more responsibly.