Implanted memories

[kana_marie]

I recently read an article claiming they can implant false memories in mice while they are asleep. I'll put a link to the article. They claim we are years away from using this technology in humans, but they are already considering the possibilities for future use. Does this make anyone else extremely uncomfortable? Do our governments really need access to this technology? Can we trust our government to use this technology responsibly and ethically?

www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23447600

 

[AskLaplace]

This can be made to be adangerous brainwashing method. Yes, I am weary too. But I don't think it would be used ever so often like stealing money or something. In the first place, the human mind is far more mysterious than the observable universe. Even if we did succeed in brain washing people how about their emotions? Maybe it might give the person psychosis because of conflicting emotions towards memories.

 

[pafjlh]

Sort of like the movie Total Rcall, and I don't know if that's a good thing. I think there are certain things we shouldn't mess with. I think that human memories are one of them. Maybe this sort of thing could be of help to someone who has suffered a total memory loss wiht no luck of getting their memories back and being able to give the memories back to them, but is this really what it will be used for. Somehow I doubt it especially if it gets into the wrong hands. I could easily be used to brainswash someone and make them believe they are someone else. Make them beleive that someone they love they hate. I don't think I like the idea of this sort of technology myself. It just seems too much like playing with fire.

 

[PaulaJedi]

I recently read an article claiming they can implant false memories in mice while they are asleep. I'll put a link to the article. They claim we are years away from using this technology in humans, but they are already considering the possibilities for future use. Does this make anyone else extremely uncomfortable? Do our governments really need access to this technology? Can we trust our government to use this technology responsibly and ethically?www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23447600

It would be great for therapy, but yes, in the wrong hands, it's very dangerous. I can imagine our government implanting memories into soldiers or using it to alter court cases. Very creepy stuff.

 

[kana_marie]

Just in our lifetimes, ( unless you're extremely young) there has been so much technology that was created with good intentions. But before you can blink an eye it's being used for the military, or even by our own police officers, or any other number of I intended purposes. With government intervention is it too far fetched to assume they would use it to alter the minds of anyone who spoke out against them? Imagine if they had that technology when Malcolm X was at his peak, or any serious feminist, radical political opponent, or even Hitler.

 

[aparsons]

I think it is terrifying to think about, but if the technology is perfected, it would be impossible for you to know about it. The government, if they wanted to, would be able to manipulate your memories and change them in a way that you would forget your memories even being changed. They would be able to completely mold any individual they wanted.

Our brains already do sort of create false memories as well. Each time you remember an event, you are not remembering the event itself, but the last time you remembered it. So in theory, small changes to ones internal understanding of an event can lead them to assuming that the altered event truly happened in reality.

 

[Wiseman05]

They claim we are years away from using this technology in humans,

The bolded section above is what gets to me the most. The fact that they're developing this technology, and have full intention on using it for human use. I'm not against developing technology to help people, but I am highly against technology that can easily be abused by people in power against those that aren't, and this is something that is highly unethical to begin with.

 

[Siren]

This whole thing reminds me of the movie " The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" where a business was created erasing memories, and how that affected a couple played by Jim Carey and Kate Winslet. I remember thinking how no matter how bad my memories are, no matter how screwed up they make me, they are MINE, they are part of what makes me. me. In the movie the truth broke through the mind conditioning. I think that would happen if this technology was actually real and utilized as well.