Memories selectively, safely erased in mice

[mariorz]

https://my.mcg.edu/portal/page/portal/News/archive/2008/59D79F7394B95694E0440003BAD149FF

[cliffy]

Wow, we are talking Philip K. Dick stories right here. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, etc.

If this is reliably applied to humans, well, the implications are just staggering.

[river_styx → cliffy]

Seriously. I'm in dire need of erasing my ex.

[jwilliams → river_styx]

I'd like to erase all memory of the movie Johnny Mnemonic... and maybe Paycheck too.

[altano → cliffy]

There's a radiolab episode that touches on this: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/06/08

You're right, it's really not too far of a stretch to say we're talking about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind here...

[timr → cliffy]

Time to found Lacuna, Inc....

[markbao]

I hope someone buys the patent off of them and holds it idle.

[randallsquared → markbao]

Care to explain why you don't want people having control over their memories?

[ars → randallsquared]

Because maybe the word "their" will be replaced with "other peoples"?

You might think "such a person won't care about patents", but I can think of many nightmare scenarios, which a common criminal will be able to do if such a thing were possible.

It's bad enough with the drugs that already exist.

[randallsquared → ars]

Well, that's how technology works. It's a rare device or procedure which can't be used as part of some nefarious plan, but that's no reason to ban or suppress the devices or procedures.

[jwilliams → randallsquared]

Indeed- I guess Alfred Nobel and dynamite is the classic example of this.

[yters → randallsquared]

Are you sure the really bad stuff isn't banned, or covered up? Saying no security through obscurity does have its limits.

[randallsquared → yters]

Obviously I can't be sure, but I think the level of success had by nonproliferation of nuclear technologies is indicative of what we could expect from that, and I don't see any strong evidence of it.

[Tichy]

"You will feel like every time, it's a new toy"

I hope he meant "the mouse will feel like every time, it's a new toy".

I hope I haven't written this before. If so, my apologies, but I couldn't remember.

[ntoshev]

Memories are supposedly interconnected. Interesting what would happen to related memories.