Memory Modification is Coming Sooner Than You Think

Memory Modification

            With science fiction on the rise there are many movies or TV shows that are testing the waters of what the world would be like in a few year. One show like this is Black Mirror, a Netflix original. Black Mirror tests the waters on what would society be like if we had a certain machine to lets say download our memories or to record everything we see. In one of the episodes we see an implant in our brains that allows us to record all our memories and allows us to play them back whenever. Through out the episode we see how this machine can hinder or increase our social interactions, and how their “new” society views memories.

            Our technologies nowadays are nowhere near that level of memory collection, but science has been able to innervate certain aspects of our memories. Joe Vukov who is a Philosophy professor at Loyola University of Chicago came to talk about the ethics of new studies being done that modify human’s memory. There are drugs now that allow for victims with PTSD to not remember their experiences that well. Theses treatments are consider MMS which rely on the protein kinases MS to dull the amygdala whenever the topic of the PTSD is being thought of.

            Joe Vukov came in to talk about the main ethics of the memory modification using drugs. There are two main sides on this argument; we have the alarmist and the modifiers. The alarmists believe that memory modification is unnatural because the memories we have form who we are, and even bad memories are needed for the exact reason that they are bad. The alarmist bring up a few good points on how we would not be the people we are today without the memories of our past. The modifiers believe that memory modification is morally permissible as long as no harm is done to anyone. They also have a few good points especially relating to the well being of humans, those with PTSD. They also believe that our identify is malleable and memory modification will just be another aspect of our identities. Mr. Vurkov agreed on some aspects of both groups so he came up with Treatmentalism. Treatmentalism is on the basis of allowing to use memory modification as a treatment until it restores someone to a normal level of functioning. Meaning memory modification would be able to be used on patients with PTSD, and treat their memories to stop hindering them in daily life. But on the other hand memory modification should not be use to erase a bad memory such as getting a D on a test. Treatmentalism is still in the works of becoming a full fledge ethical group but the main aspect is to get human to a normal psychological level of functioning.