Super Memory

Are we headed towards a future where we would have an incredible memory? A memory that would enable us to instantaneously remember anything we want? Some scientists are already calling for brain implants that would increase our capacity to remember.

A New York Professor has advocated the idea of Google type brain implant chips that would "improve human memory", an idea which mirrors already active projects funded by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

A brain implant chip may eventually allow a person to have a fantastic photographic memory. A Google memory implant would permit a person to remember any trivial detail on command.

"However difficult the practicalities, there’s no reason in principle why a future generation of neural prostheticists couldn't pick up where nature left off, incorporating Google-like master maps into neural implants."

The blogger Al Fin, recently brought up what I thought was an interesting perspective about the future of memory.

"In that utopian future that we all envision, the things that we want to remember are remembered, and the things we wish to forget are forgotten. Too often in the real world, just the opposite is the case."

What do people want out of their memory? Memory is something that we often do not have a lot of control over. As a person ages, their memory can decline considerably. Things they want to remember, they can't. On the other hand, people who have post traumatic stress disorder may have continuous memories of stuff they want to forget. They have haunting memories that they relive again and again. I think in general, even a seemingly normal person may have several bad memories that they wished they could forget but can't. The brain is fairly good at remembering traumatic events and bringing them back up to the forefront time and time again. Often the brain is not good at remembering the things we want to remember. Science, though, has made progress on both of these fronts. It has helped some people to forget what they want to forget, while helping others to remember what they want to remember. However, a brain implant has the possibility of going even further in this direction.

This got me thinking about the mechanism of memory and some memory disorders. The frontal lobe area of the brain right behind a person's forehead serves to make sure our memories are appropriate, socially acceptable and weighed correctly. When the frontal lobe is damaged, you get a disorder like confabulation where memories are blown out of proportion and might sound absurd. Usually the confabulator is not lying. They actually believe their seemingly absurd memories. Often in this condition, the line between imaginary memories and real ones become blurred. Imagination may be mistaken for a real memory as the brain's censor mechanism is broken. Fantasy cannot be distinguished from reality.

Another unusual personality trait is narcissistic personality disorder. People with narcissistic personality disorder often have memories which aggrandize their own life disproportionately to what they actually accomplished. They often lack empathy as well which is indicative of frontal lobe dysfunction. Their memories are not necessarily outright fantasy like a confabulator but are often grossly exaggerated or misrepresented. Memories are not just about facts, it's also about the importance (value/disvalue) we place upon those facts. The narcissist may take his seemingly minor accomplishments in life, then aggrandize them and blow them out of proportion. This may be due to altered brain functioning and an inability to "weigh" memories correctly because of poor frontal lobe functioning. Memories thus become blown out of proportion in comparison to another person's subjective experience.

The narcissistic personality will see his accomplishments as being much greater than other people see them. The narcissist perceives himself to be brilliant, accomplished and invincible. Memories which do not conform to this self perception are forgotten. So the frontal lobes serve to make sure that our memories are weighed correctly so we don’t emphasize or minimize things too much in comparison with another person’s memory. With dysfunction in this brain area, memories are no longer weighed proportionately. Think about your life accomplishments. Some people may inflate their relatively weak accomplishments while others are meek and minimize their seemingly great accomplishments. The lens through which we view our own memories, past and history can be skewed by our unique brain functioning. Subjective reality is just that, subjective. We would like to think our memories are concrete and absolute, but often this is not the case.

What happens when a person has complete control over their memory and are allowed to delete memories at will. It seems obvious that a person might want to delete the subjectively "bad" memories and retain the "good" ones. Would that mean a person will have an inflated sense of accomplishment and self esteem? They will have forgotten anything they did wrong because they will have deleted those memories and remember only the good things. Memories might get blown out of proportion too. You might retain a memory and then magnify its importance in comparison to other memories. This would be analogous to a person with narcissistic personality disorder. Some memories on the other hand might be minimized in proportion to their "actual" weight. A world in which people can selectively pick and choose their memories would be a radical societal shift. Would the world slowly drift off into some kind of a fantasy akin to a confabulators memory whereby imagination is substituted for "reality". With a memory implant it would also be possible to create false memories in place of real ones. So a person could substitute another person's memory for his own. Will memories be weighted disproportionately to their importance using a Google memory implant? How does one "weigh" a memory? Part of our brain's function is to make sure our memories line up with the memories of others. With certain brain disorders we can see where this process goes awry. A brain implant would completely change this process.

There is also the issue of the necessity of memory. When almost all information can be found by using Google on the Internet, does one really need to have a spectacular Google memory implant? A person can already find any information they desire through a few key strokes, so a Google memory implant may merely be superfluous. Overall, though, having more control over our memories seems to be the general direction that science is headed in. This may certainly lead to a very interesting future to say the least.