From: Andrew Clough (aclough@mit.edu)
Date: Thu Jun 26 2003 - 23:13:43 MDT
At 09:04 PM 6/26/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>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 know, we know that general anesthesia can in rare cases just paralyze
the recipient, but leave them able to remember the whole operation. And we
know (me from personal experience) that people coming out from anesthesia
may appear to be perfectly conscious, but not form any memories for a while
after appearing to awaken. Thus, I suspect I've already done something
similar to the people going to Needleman... I'd be very happy if someone
could tell me why I'm wrong.
Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity..
-M.N. Plano
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