MMT

The concept of memory is one that affects everyone. We see the influences of this everywhere from movies such as Finding Dory to our own inability to remember what we ate for dinner the night before. It is something that influences our relationships with others such as being able to remember an inside joke with someone to remembering that they don’t like tomatoes.

Matthew Liao and Anders Sandberg’s article presented by Joe Vukov talks about the issues revolving around the use of memory modifying technologies, MMT’s which influence memory content. He introduced the different types of memory systems, long term and short term. Short term memory consists of “sensory buffers” in regards to the five senses whereas long term memory, his main focus, was defined as being limitless and classified based on meaning. Long term memory is further made up of the declarative memory system and the non-declarative memory. Declarative memory is the memorization of facts and events consciously, while non-declarative is behavioral changes when the actually memory is inaccessible. He further delves into the notion of how there is no specific location for memories to be stored but rather they are dispersed among different structures to make up an entire network. This network contributes to the knowledge that “memories are not discrete objects, but overlap and interconnect”. (Liao)

An article posted by Slate titled Training Humans, Elizabeth Loftus touches on the idea of modifying memories to result in better eating habits. Loftus tested this theory through three trails first using potato chips, next chocolate chip cookies and lastly strawberry ice cream. She noticed that in her efforts to modify people’s memories with potato chips, the familiarity of this snack was too strong to be able to form a negative associate with, thus the experiment failed. However, she did find success during the strawberry ice cream trial resulting in 40% of participants truly believing they had a negative memory associated with the snack thus resulting in not wanting to eat it anymore. This study showcases the positive way in which memory modifying can be used to better individual’s health.

The idea of memories being modified is one that is extremely controversial in the idea of how are we to ever learn from our mistakes if we simply pick these memories out and delete them. So, although, we are able to see in this article through Loftus study that altering these memories can result in a positive outcome of forming healthier eating habits, we are not taking into account the idea that memories are not individual pieces but rather combined as stated earlier. Therefore maybe we should take into consideration both the positive and negative impacts MMT’s can ultimately have.

Work Cited:

Liao, Matthew, and Anders Sandberg. "The Normativity of Memory Modification." Springer Science, 10 Apr. 2008. Web. 11 Dec. 2016.

 Saletan, William. "Better Living through Memory Modification." Slate Magazine. N.p., 31 May 2010. Web. 11 Dec. 2016.