Bad Memories Could Be Deleted In The Future

The human mind is truly a wonderful thing to behold, as it has a virtually infinite repository space to carry all sorts of information, but at times things can go askew, resulting in some rather awkward or downright erratic behavior. Having said that, can memories be manipulated? Not so much in terms of the digital world where one can copy a memory or delete it, but scientists might have stumbled upon a method that allows one to ‘delete’ or edit’ unwanted memories.

In a new documentary from PBS, it was shown how modern day science would be able to help humans to ‘edit’ memories – and this would include creating new memories out of nothing at all. That can be rather dangerous, as the dawn of such new techniques used to be the domains of science fiction in movies and books.

The documentary is known as “Memory Hackers,” where the film makers shared, “For much of human history, memory has been seen as a tape recorder that faithfully registers information and replays it intact. But now, researchers are discovering that memory is far more malleable, always being written and rewritten, not just by us but by others. We are discovering the precise mechanisms that can explain and even control our memories.”

Of course, careful use of such techniques and technology should be of the uppermost priority, especially since one can now implant false memories into a person. Will we see a real life Inception scenario happening anytime soon then?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Medical
Tags: Science