Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Eternal Sunshine Reality?

So I was just looking around the internet and I came upon this article that seemed pretty interesting... and a little creepy.
Apparently, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found a way to completely erase traumatic events from a person's memory. They're claiming that this could lead to drugs that will help those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The article compares it to the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," which is a very sci-fi-esque film. I know this story is more science than science fiction, but I thought it was really interesting and it shows how a lot of times, what we perceive as science fiction one day may be reality the next. It seems like there a lot of examples of this and that this is just the latest.
The article is the title for those that are interested. Any thoughts on this? Creepy or Awesome? Both?

3 comments:

Jenny Strack said...

I have to go ahead and say creepy and kind of sad. While there are definitely things that we would prefer not to have to go through, everything that happens throughout our lives makes us the people we are. To me, being able to erase memories would take away parts of who we are.

Anonymous said...

I'm sort of torn about this. Without doing any research on this, the potential for misuse is astounding and makes me a little uncomfortable. Also, it's the Daily Fail, so I really don't trust it anyway.

Courtney said...

I agree with Jenny. I think some of the worst experiences of our lives make us who we are, for better or for worse. If we take those experiences away then our personality has the potential to change dramatically. While I do think it could be helpful for some people who took a turn for the worse after a traumatic event, I don't think it is something that should be used for everyone.