AntisocialButterfly wrote:
Feels like playing with fire to me. I love neuroscience, and if I went to Uni ever I would struggle to choose between studying computer science and studying biology with neuroscience.
However I think modifying memories is not research I would like to improve. Removing bad memories means being able to remove memories, the distinction between good and bad is entirely subjective, and the process won't know or care about the difference between the two.
I personally do not agree with removing bad memories anyway because your brain has been formed by the situations you have faced and your neural pathways are shaped and changed due to what happens to you every day. You remove a 'bad memory' I wonder how much it would change who you are as a person.
Also I don't know enough about the study to comment more but masking and removing a memory are different, removing a memory is something that I feel risks changing your personality and how your brain is wired, and masking them will still cause you physical and mental strain because you still know it has happened. I have PTSD and when bad memories re-appear its not like they were not affecting me before hand, its just I am aware of them now.
Maybe that didn't make sense lol, but yer. I think some of this memory stuff is quite terrifying. Won't be long before hacking humans will be a thing. At the same time its simply an extension of understanding humans and how they work. We can't seem to learn something without messing around with it and breaking it.
Some changes can be good like being how you once were before the memory if you were happier and more fun or just able to function normally. It should be removed only if it severely affects mental health and caused depression.
I guess I just fundamentally disagree with the idea of removing something because it wasn't nice. I've had plenty of memories that I wished would just go away, but those situations have shaped who I am, now I am better prepared to deal with it if it happens in future. I have learned from myself and others what to and what not to do. I am sure after WWII lots of people would have loved to have removed their memories of the senseless murder and horror however those memories are what drives us as a race to avoid such a thing again. On the flip side they caused a large number of suicides and greatly reduced the quality of life for returning soldiers etc. Everything has a list of pro's and con's it is likely more of a philosophical question than anything else.