The Era of Memory Engineering Has Arrived

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/era-memory-engineering-has-arrived/

Memory engineering sounds like a field straight out of a comic book or a science fiction movie. And while movies like the Matrix, which only came out fifteen years, seem to make the idea of memory manipulation fantastical, two MIT researchers have shown that these possibilities are closer than they seem. By using Channelrhodopsin to make neurons light-activated during a certain period, they are able to find the source neurons that lit up, thus tracing the recent memories to certain brain cells in the mice and allowing the scientists to reactivate the memories via certain cues or parts of experiences that occurred during the original memory activation, such as shining a light on the mice.
While ethical issues can be raised about the treatment of the mice in the experiments, the effects that these will have on humans is extremely important. I wish to point out a few of the possible uses that memory engineering (or if you prefer the article’s more poetic version, memory manhandling) as well as highlight a few of the ethical issues that will arise from this recent discovery.
Just like any kind of physical manipulation of the body, it seems to me that memory engineering can be a possible, if expensive, form of therapy or healing. Traumatic experiences are such because they are replayed in the minds of those who experience them, and can stay with that person until they die. However, with the introduction of technology that can change or even get rid of these traumatic memories, people will have an opportunity to heal. Another positive use may be the treatment of Alzheimer’s. With old age, memories of loved ones may fade or even disappear, and people may even forget their own spouses, which is a horrible fate for anyone in love or a family member of friend of the afflicted.

And what of simple personal or public use? Memories might even become a marketable commodity. People looking for escape have traditionally sought out comedy clubs, movie theaters, and bars to go and get away from life for a while. Happy memories might become sought after as a means for people to have a bit of pleasure and escape into their own mind for a bit, and can hold onto those memories, just like the memories of a good movie, for years to come.

Can we implant memories into criminals and sociopaths to make them more caring, just as we could take out memories? Since the brain is responsible for thought and thus, is needed for action from an individual to occur, being able to change it.

Another ethical objection brought up might be the artificiality of such experiences. People wouldn’t actually have experienced them, and the line between actual and artificial memories becomes vague and blurry and may cheapen the experience of living.  Such a technology with powerful implications for human memory engineering, while still in its infancy, could prove to have radical implications on human psychology and thus careful ethical consideration should be taken to prevent unethical use.