From: Spike (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Thu Jun 26 2003 - 22:04:44 MDT
Brett Paatsch:
> > ... "we've been able to do selective memory wiping for
> > at least a year now..."
>...I was joking about wiping away any feelings of guilt that
>might arise if one could and did wipe away particular memories
>at will... Brett Paatsch
Surgical removal of guilt feelings would be a wildly
popular application of such a technology, were it
to become available. Of course one would suffer
condemnation from *every* major religion, this
being their jealously guarded line of business,
in which they would not welcome additional competition.
A better use of this tech would be in dentistry.
Do let me offer this scenario:
A coworker comes to the office raaaaving about a
wonderful new dentistry office in town, Needleman
and Paatsch. One goes into the office, wait for ones
name to be called, then as if by magic one immediately
find oneself again in the sitting room, teeth all
fixed, three hours past and no problem at all.
Coworkers try this and all agree, it is the very most
perfectly painless oral procedure ever.
So you go in, but being an inquiring mind, you ask
the practitioners what is this wonderful anesthetic
they have discovered. They tell you it isn't anesthetic
at all, but a post op memory wipe. You will still
suffer all the pain of an ordinary oral operation
without anesthetic. More so in fact, for the
memory wipe is more effective if the exact
memories can be identified by increased contrast:
the doctors actually enhance your pain.
This of course evokes further questioning from
you, upon which time you learn that upon walking
thru the door, a pair of burly galoots strip the
patient naked and tie him or her to the chair,
attach electrodes to the testicles or nipples, apply
excruciating electric shocks while the doctor
performs the procedure. The shock levels are
not high enough to leave any scars, just enough
to cause the patients to shriek in unspeakable agony.
You decline the procedure, returning to the office
to tell your coworkers what they have been thru.
One says he doesn't care, his teeth are fixed,
he felt no pain, has lost no skill, knowledge nor
wisdom, other than his wisdom teeth. But another
coworker starts to squirm uncomfortably as she realizes
the cruel torture she has apparently suffered. She
eventually goes back to Dr. Needleman and has him erase
the memory of your telling her about the doctor's methods.
That works. In fact, she later returns and has Needleman
erase the memory of her entire second marriage,
this being easily identified by it's being a
biorecord of pain and misery from start to finish.
Of course it is only a matter of time before word
gets around and a long waiting list soon forms
on Needleman's appointment book, as patients want
all feelings of guilt removed from their brains, this
being a very special kind of pain: the kind that
actually gets worse as time passes.
spike
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