SCI FI HEADLINES: We Can Forget It for You Wholesale

Actually, we already have memory suppressing drugs. For example, Versed is often used on patients about to undergo a medical procedure where they don't want to put the patient under but they also want the patient relaxed and not to have a memory of the event in case it proves traumatic. What we don't have is drugs that are good at helping eliminate traumatic memories in a targeted way after-the-fact.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

3 thoughts on “SCI FI HEADLINES: We Can Forget It for You Wholesale”

  1. Hello Jimmy,
    On the off chance you peruse comments anymore, this news item could lead to some interesting reflections on confession and remorse for past sins. In particular, these kinds of drugs have the potential to make memory much more slippery. I think you could make an interesting blog entry out of it in your inimitable way.

  2. Unafraid to stir up a hornet’s nest of controversy, Adam Kolber, a Brooklyn Law School professor has published an essay on Nature declaring that he believes it’s time the debate over whether to continue research into pharmaceuticals that can alter, dampen or erase memories should end. He says that it’s clear, at least to him, that the benefits of such drugs would far outweigh the negatives and that research should move full speed ahead so that those who suffer the negative effects of bad memories can get on with their lives in ways they would have had the bad thing they remember never occurred.
    Captain Kirk responds:
    KIRK
    Spock…
    (when he doesn’t
    reply, to Sybok)
    What have you done to my friends?
    SYBOK
    I’ve done nothing. This is who
    they are. Didn’t you know that?
    The question hits Kirk with force.
    KIRK
    (realizing)
    No… I didn’t.
    SYBOK
    Now learn something about
    yourself.
    KIRK
    No. I refuse.
    McCOY
    (imploring)
    Jim, try to be open about this.
    KIRK
    About what? That I’ve made the
    wrong choices in my life? That I
    turned left when I should’ve turned
    right? I know what my weaknesses
    are. I don’t need Sybok to take me
    on a tour of them.
    McCOY
    If you’d just unbend and allow
    yourself –
    KIRK
    And be brainwashed by this con man?
    McCOY
    I was wrong. This “con man” took
    away my pain.
    KIRK
    Damnit, Bones, you’re a doctor.
    You know that pain and guilt can’t
    be taken away with a wave of a
    magic wand. They’re things we carry
    with us – the things that make us
    who we are. If we lost them, we
    lose ourselves. I don’t want my
    pain taken away. I need my pain.
    A tense silence, broken by…
    UHURA’S VOICE
    Sybok, this is the bridge. We’re
    in approach of the Great Barrier.
    The Chicken

Comments are closed.