What immediately pops into my mind is that we are tool users. We like to demonize tools, but really it is us the tool users that are the "demons" when ill comes by use of a tool. What I am getting at is that through no fault of the tool we tend to use them for both good and bad.
So while there may be good uses for the tool there are also very bad and nefarious uses.
I'd say the need to get rid of a traumatic memory might be needed in some extreme rare cases, but we also learn from these. They are important to our empathy, so unless there is a very debilitating event occurring due to the memory then erasing REALITY is not necessarily a good idea.
The nefarious implications of this technology though are pretty staggering.
We can erase memories. That could be very bad. The idea of "witnesses" could be put at extreme risk.
Now let's go a little further. If we can erase them, are we far from being able to create or write memories?
Wow... that could be dark.
You are right. We have always proved that we are capable of using any technology for good and bad. It really comes down to the motives and agenda of people involved and I agree that this particular tool can easily be used to wipe off the memory of an entire population especially by a government. I wonder if they already have it and have used it before.
It certainly is dark!
I believe the times when this would actually be a good thing are VERY rare. Like I said it shouldn't be a matter of just wanting to erase memories. Those negative memories and learning to deal with them are important. The rare cases would be in cases where it is debilitating, or a person without a doubt is going to commit suicide if it remains. Things like that.
Yet like I said that is pretty rare. I consider any other use of this tool to be a very dark thing.
You are right. Negative experiences are equally important for life as the positive ones.
Very true, @dwinblood. Our experiences whether good or bad builds our character and makes us who we are today. We often feel we can do without some of the negative experiences, but after some time has gone by, we can look back and appreciate the knowledge we have gained.
Exactly. It's the negatives in life that provide a lot of valuable lessons for our entire lives. I think that if life was only always happy, that happiness wouldn't have any meaning. It is only because we know sadness, that we know happiness.
Not only that. It also can turn our reality into a lie. If we simply erase the things we don't remember then we are selectively altering history. It could make us believe a total lie simply due to the fact a very important piece of information that put it into proper context no longer existed. We see this a lot in the news. Yet this could become the reality.
The more I think about this the more I believe that there are RARE cases where this could save someone's life and be positive. However, most of the uses for this tool I believe are overwhelmingly negative things. Kind of scary actually.
A society full of people who lose empathy due to simply erasing the things that would leave them memories to relate to the pain and sorrow of others. A society full of people who have no idea that their memory of an event in history has been completely altered by deleting important contextual memories. Scary stuff.