Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory

Read the article here.


If you are too lazy to read the whole thing, here are a few interesting quotes and my thoughts on them:


"Suppose scientists could erase certain memories by tinkering with a single substance in the brain. Could make you forget a chronic fear, a traumatic loss, even a bad habit.

Researchers in Brooklyn have recently accomplished comparable feats, with a single dose of an experimental drug delivered to areas of the brain critical for holding specific types of memory, like emotional associations, spatial knowledge or motor skills."


"Millions of people might be tempted to erase a severely painful memory, for instance — but what if, in the process, they lost other, personally important memories that were somehow related? Would a treatment that “cleared” the learned habits of addiction only tempt people to experiment more widely?

And perhaps even more important, when scientists find a drug to strengthen memory, will everyone feel compelled to use it?"

"'This possibility of memory editing has enormous possibilities and raises huge ethical issues,' said Dr. Steven E. Hyman, a neurobiologist at Harvard."



"Ethical issues"....understatement! Can you say mind control?! Or the possibility of erasing the wrong memories? Or how about being able to erase certain aspects of one's personality?? That could create the desire for everyone to be a "perfect human." Skynet, here we come!