I don't know about you but I think this is probably a step too far (Brain researchers open door to editing memory). Aside from the dangers of loosing material around the edges there are wider ethical issues. Are you still responsible for actions of which you have no memory? What are the implications for emotional resilience if I can just edit out the bad stuff? A few minutes thought on the implications for criminal activity and a myriad of fairly nasty implications come to mind (maybe I'd like to forget some of those for that matter). What about guilt? Now I don't want to dwell on that but a brain swept of guilt does not a good person make. It all takes cosmetic surgery to new depths. Nip and Tuck adds chemical lobotomies?
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Comments (2)
Dave - Given what we know about memory, it'll be less liposuction for the mind and more chemtherapy for a toxic past (lots of side effects, used sparingly).
I was also a little annoyed by the last paragraph. I like science but I learned more from reading Funes the Memorious than looking at a PKMzeta molecule.
Posted by Matt Moore | April 6, 2009 9:58 PM
Posted on April 6, 2009 21:58
eternal sunshine of the spotless mind kind of covered this one.
nothing but downsides really. you can argue that it'll be good for trauma victims and the like, but you can guarantee (as you point out), that people would use it to forget about high-school...
Posted by che tibby | April 7, 2009 2:09 AM
Posted on April 7, 2009 02:09