NationStates Jolt Archive

US scientists 'erase mice memory' Scientists in the US say they have developed the ability to selectively wipe out uncomfortable memories. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7685541.stm)

Anyone else worried about the OTHER applications of this tech if it comes to fruition?

Pfft, I've been able to do that for years.

The article doesn't say how it could be used in a targeted way...just something about using magic special science "molecules". How do you pick which memories to lose? Have they worked out precisely where each memory is held in the brain? Science is nowhere near as advanced as that, surely, even looking at mice? I'm sceptical.

Didn't someone invent alcohol like three years ago or something?

Poor Lenny...

Psh. The Men In Black have had this ability for years now.

On another note, how frightening the possibilities are should this technology fall into the wrong hands.
*Sticks head in hole*

Meh, Sign me up, plenty of things I'd rather forget. Then again memory is all we are. Existential conundrum.

The article doesn't say how it could be used in a targeted way...just something about using magic special science "molecules". How do you pick which memories to lose? Have they worked out precisely where each memory is held in the brain? Science is nowhere near as advanced as that, surely, even looking at mice? I'm sceptical.

Read it again - the article is pretty explicit on how it could be used in a targetted way actually. In humans, it would be even easier, since you can be asked/talked to - but all you have to do is cause someone to recall a specific incident, and overdose them with the protein they're discussing.

Important bit: "Making the mice over-produce this protein while recalling a specific and painful event caused the memory to be completely eliminated".

So they don't have to target the location of a memory - all they have to do is poison it when YOU remember it, effectively.

Read it again - the article is pretty explicit on how it could be used in a targetted way actually. In humans, it would be even easier, since you can be asked/talked to - but all you have to do is cause someone to recall a specific incident, and overdose them with the protein they're discussing.

Important bit: "Making the mice over-produce this protein while recalling a specific and painful event caused the memory to be completely eliminated".

So they don't have to target the location of a memory - all they have to do is poison it when YOU remember it, effectively.

*facepalm* Damn. I read it twice and still did a fail. Thanks.

Anyways, yeh, thats some scary shit right there. Lets hope the shadowy figures of the Establishment don't get their grubby mitts on this.

*facepalm* Damn. I read it twice and still did a fail. Thanks.

Anyways, yeh, thats some scary shit right there. Lets hope the shadowy figures of the Establishment don't get their grubby mitts on this.

Already thought about the ramifications of that (my wife and I were having a debate about some of the issues we've seen in the news in the past couple of years, and decided the world isn't real, any more, and - at some point in the 90's - the whole of existence got rewritten as a made-for-TV scifi movie. We're in about the second chapter now....) and decided that the best way to deal with such government intrusion would be 'static'

So - the MiB starts asking you to recount your experience on such and such a date... and you start singing the 'song that never ends' to yourself, whilst trying to conjour up mental images of a dancing penguin.

As afar as I can tell - at this point - they'd have no way to check they'd deleted what they wanted to delete. Well, without 'truthdrugs' and 'polygraphs' etc.

So - it might work as a protection against casual memory surgery, but if someone REALLY wanted a memory gone, they could probably get it in the end.

so what your saying is it wasn't my fault that I forgot to go to work, more I had eaten dodgy protein?

wait...how did I get here :confused:

Psh. The Men In Black have had this ability for years now.

On another note, how frightening the possibilities are should this technology fall into the wrong hands.
*Sticks head in hole*

Aye, but neuralizers are time set. Not so for what is being done here. I would rather trust the neuralizer.

All those years I spent mastering the art of denial were for naught. Curse you, medical science.

US scientists 'erase mice memory' Scientists in the US say they have developed the ability to selectively wipe out uncomfortable memories. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7685541.stm)

Anyone else worried about the OTHER applications of this tech if it comes to fruition?

Oh man this could be like a renaissance or an industrial revolution in psychology. All those bad childhood memories which fuck people up can be ereased as well as psychological traumas such as rape, etc...

So much for Dualism.

US scientists 'erase mice memory' Scientists in the US say they have developed the ability to selectively wipe out uncomfortable memories. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7685541.stm)
Russians invented that ability years ago. It's called Vodka.

And here I thought we were about to have a discussion on the Steinbeck book. :(

And here I thought we were about to have a discussion on the Steinbeck book. :(

It could have been a discussion on Burns' poetry.

*facepalm* Damn. I read it twice and still did a fail. Thanks.

Anyways, yeh, thats some scary shit right there. Lets hope the shadowy figures of the Establishment don't get their grubby mitts on this.

We already have it. We've had it for decades, and we're finally revealing the truth to you now. You think Bush was bad? Be glad we erased President Gore from your collective memories. Those four years were hell and it's best that everyone forgets them.

*edit* MWAHAHAHAHahahahahahahaa.....

So...I have to be having the memory, and they'll erase it while I'm thinking of it? Does this mean that the more pissed off and horrified I get by Sarah Palin, the less I'll remember why I'm pissed off and horrified by her?

So...then...will I start liking Sarah Palin, or will I keep hating her, keep forgetting her, and spend the rest of my life wondering why I'm so pissed off and horrified all the time?

*foresees potential problem with new miracle wonder drug*

I don't think wiping out unpleasant memories is necessarily a good thing. If you don't remember unpleasantness, it could be repeated.

I don't think wiping out unpleasant memories is necessarily a good thing. If you don't remember unpleasantness, it could be repeated.
I agree. It's kind of like causing us to forget why we shouldn't try to touch the pretty fire.

US scientists 'erase mice memory' Scientists in the US say they have developed the ability to selectively wipe out uncomfortable memories. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7685541.stm)

Anyone else worried about the OTHER applications of this tech if it comes to fruition?

Government and/or cult memory erasure comes to mind. DUNNN DUNNNN DUNNNN!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

You know, there's certain books and movies I wouldn't mind forgetting so that I can experience them for the "first time" again...

You know, there's certain books and movies I wouldn't mind forgetting so that I can experience them for the "first time" again...

And then there are the ones I wouldn't mind forgetting period. Of course, then I run the risk of re-watching/re-reading them because I don't know any better any more . . .

I think this is bad, but not for the usual reasons one might think.

Something like this, if used the way I think it will be, will hold back psychological treatment for decades. It'll be the new thing to just erase painful stuff rather than cope with it, and unfortunately, it's going to result in a lot of people's lives ruined.

US scientists 'erase mice memory' Scientists in the US say they have developed the ability to selectively wipe out uncomfortable memories. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7685541.stm)

Anyone else worried about the OTHER applications of this tech if it comes to fruition?

Oh shit...That reminds me of a dystopian scifi book where exactly that sort of pill was common place.

Big no to human applications from here, the risk of abuse is just so damn high....

Not that clinical tests will ever be approved.

Oh shit...That reminds me of a dystopian scifi book where exactly that sort of pill was common place.

Big no to human applications from here, the risk of abuse is just so damn high....

Not that clinical tests will ever be approved.

Well, since they appear to be trying to sell it as a cure for things like PTSD they just might.

The more important question is whether it can be reversed.