A Pill To Erase Painful Memories - Forever!

[pyromaniac123]

I thought the title meant putting a live grenade in your mouth and removing the pin.

 

[The Milkman]

Huh, forever? This has misuse and a lot of flat out durps writen all over it. I mean, how long does it take to actually take effect? How will the public react? How would Medi-care react? All this seems to do is remove one of the most important mental aspects humans have, learning from mistakes. Unless this is only used for the WORST-CASES of post-tramactic stress, its going to just be abused like crazy, I mean hell, Presto wanted to use it so he could play video games over again! Imagine what someone with stupider (no offense presto) would do with it! I don't mind the thought of us having it, hell, we have so many friggn bombs we could blast this planet to hell 20 ways to Sunday. Just prevent it from being used with a prescription from atleast 1 physician and 2 therapists, and only accessible to certain people, like a veteran with more then just a year in a war.

 

[Midna]

From there, though, it's anyone's guess as to how it will be used, or if it will be used at all. As it advances more and more, we're going to have to take a good, long look at how we define memory, and what it means to us. We're going to have to start asking some pretty tough questions.

You naive fuck, how do you think this is going to be used? For PTSD treatment? Development on this needs to stop. Now.

 

[KingVamp]

You naive fuck, how do you think this is going to be used? For PTSD treatment? Development on this needs to stop. Now.

Overreacting?

I didn't know. If it is regulated property, the potential problems may not be as big.

 

[Sheimi]

This would benefit me of forgetting my horrid bad childhood. But wouldn't we repeat the same mistake? As the saying goes "History repeats itself".

 

[KingVamp]

This would benefit me of forgetting my horrid bad childhood. But wouldn't we repeat the same mistake? As the saying goes "History repeats itself".

I really didn't think it would be %100 chance of happening, specially if it was a specify experience someone else place on you.
As shown by presto, it doesn't even have to be a mistake.

 

[LightyKD]

You naive fuck, how do you think this is going to be used? For PTSD treatment? Development on this needs to stop. Now.

Overreacting?

I didn't know. If it is regulated property, the potential problems may not be as big.

Have you not learned anything from Star Trek? As a species, we have a bad habit of letting our weapons grow faster than our wisdom. If you simply think that the problems to come from said pill will simply be skipped then, you have a lot to learn about the world around you. This pill is bad news and will be used for one. Of two things. Mind controlled or as a weapon. This is all around bad news. I'm a huge science advocate but there are just some elements of life and nature that just shouldn't be fucked with.

 

[lufere7]

Holy crap! If they get this down to near perfection after a while...man, I'd have some smart uses for it, but I know if possible, I'd waste some of these on erasing memories of vidya games! 999, Ever 17, Ghost Trick, and others. Some games are just so much better when you don't know what will happen next, namely story-oriented games. FUTURE!

You just exactly mentioned the 3 games I would like to erase of my memory to enjoy once again
Also, this reminds me of True Remembrance, what a great game.

 

[troydude6]

Dang, I could totally keep playing Mother 3 over and over again and love it every time.
Where do I sign up?

 

[Bladexdsl]

i'll need to erase my whole life than pretty much!

 

[Gahars]

From there, though, it's anyone's guess as to how it will be used, or if it should be used at all. As it advances more and more, we're going to have to take a good, long look at how we define memory, and what it means to us. We're going to have to start asking some pretty tough questions.

You naive fuck, how do you think this is going to be used? For PTSD treatment? Development on this needs to stop. Now.

Damn. Struck a nerve, huh?

Our history shows that mankind has a knack for finding ways to weaponize pretty much anything and everything (just ask poor Alfred Nobel). Every bit of technology and scientific research has the potential for misuse. If you stopped every bit of scientific development on that basis, there wouldn't be scientific development.

To stop a potential breakthrough in therapy for people suffering from PTSD (and who knows what other ailments this could help) for paranoia and pessimism alone is ludicrous. To let their suffering needlessly continue would be shameful.

(Note: I had made a typo in the original post. I fixed it in this post as well.)

 

[Janthran]

There are certain things on /b/ that I wouldn't mind forgetting..

Then stop going to that unfunny hole of filth.
If you're so keen on mentioning it then grab it together and man up!

I actually have stopped, after that *thing*.

 

[Sterling]

A big problem I would see happening is someone murdering someone and taking one of these and forgetting about it. You can't be tried if you have no knowledge of what you did.

 

[Gahars]

A big problem I would see happening is someone murdering someone and taking one of these and forgetting about it. You can't be tried if you have no knowledge of what you did.

Of course you can! As long as the prosecution has the evidence that you committed the crime, you're going to get tried, memories or not.

 

[Thesolcity]

No, I don't like things messing with my brain. Lest you want certain games coming to life.

 

[mysticwaterfall]

I find it very hard to believe this will ever be targeted enough to remove just the specific memory in question, plus there are numerous other side effects to consider. We have a very primitive understanding of neurology right now.

One good example is antidepressants. Any particular one will not work in around 30% of patients for no known reason. So we try another one until something works. Even though the newer agents are "selective" that really just means they are more preferential for some things then others, not that they only do those things. It's incredibly difficult to target something to one specific thing, even more so to one precise area.

As for people debating about abuse, this would 100% be guaranteed abused. People take/do many other things now to "forget".

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

Such a pill should definitely be a tightly controlled drug, like morphine. It is capable of great healing but of great destruction as well. There's no telling what abuse would do.

With that said, it should greatly help trauma victims. Most bad experiences or mistakes should be remembered as a learning point, as a lesson. Then again, there are some memories that are detrimental to one's mental health and state. Some memories that gnaw at you night and day, depriving you of sleep and sanity. Some memories that just doesn't want to go away.

Some memories that must be purged.

 

[DiscostewSM]

And how many painful mistakes/memories had to be experienced to get to this point in scientific history? Had it not been for those, we probably wouldn't be anywhere near as advanced as we are now. Pain is a part of life.

 

[KingVamp]

And how many painful mistakes/memories had to be experienced to get to this point in scientific history? Had it not been for those, we probably wouldn't be anywhere near as advanced as we are now. Pain is a part of life.

umm... Is apart of advancing is to lower or get rid of pain along with enhancing pleasure and what not?

 

[Icealote]

The side effect I can see in this pill is something like Alzheimer's disease or the reverse effect (making the person remember more vividly).

I don't believe the human mind or brain can be completely wiped or even suppressed such memories. We just have the tendenacy to want to remember stuff again even when we don't want to. At the extreme, that person who takes that pill and the effects of it is successful, the environment they live in, the people they live with, are going to remind them one way or another. Even having to remember it, that person will naturally deny it (making it worse), empathise (possibly triggering the memory again) or sympathising (understanding what happened and possibly feeling guilty not remembering it at all).

It's a stupid idea.


EDIT: Plus don't men have this already? We call it having selecting memory ahha