The other day I came across an article which lead to, as its sources, a number of other articles on false memories, whether you're trying to trick other people, you're trying to trick yourself, you've accidentally tricked yourself, or you're trying to un-trick yourself.
The Russians seem to have the largest market in matters of tricking other people. Aside from all sorts of fake merchandise in their shops, there actually is someone selling fake memories - not in the "we'll implant them into your head" sense, but in the sense of fake photos, tickets, and everything else needed to convince other people that you took a vacation that you actually didn't. One man even bought a fake trip to the moon.
At Northwestern, scientists have been studying false memories by examing brain functions during memory recall. They have discovered that different areas of the brain are active depending on whther one is recalling real memories or imagined events. Eventually this sort of research could leads to methords to determine whether a memory is real or not, something particularly critical in certain instances. The two they specifically mention are criminal trials and repressed memories or traumatic events. Obviously the accuracy of a witness' memory during a trial is rather important to the people involved, as it could implicate the wrong person as the criminal. In the same way, verifying accuracy of repressed memories that are returning could keep someone from falsely accusing another of anything, and also help them struggle through questions of "did this really happen?" and throw out anything that didn't - potentially helpful to them and, I imagine, anyone trying to help them.
Of course, the obvious conclusion to this combination of articles is that you can put these two areas together and find a way to create your own false memories of a fake vacation, having not only the fake receipts to convince others but also implanted memories of your own so that you actually "remember" going. Perhaps then I would buy that trip to the moon. Of course, by then, a real trip might cost only $15,000... and why trick myself?
Thursday, July 27, 2006
False Facts
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2 comments:
Whoa. You should watch Total Recall. Same exact idea- a man buys a virtual vacation to Mars for a large amount and it leads to complications (some one was messing with his memories even before he bought the trip.) I haven't seen it myself, but it sounds extremely similar.
I've never watched it, but if I remember correctly it was based on a story by Phillip K Dick involving, among other things, a company that gives people artificial memories. I don't believe they gave real receipts and photographs though. Still, that's the problem with reading so much... so few ideas are really, truly my own. I should see the movie sometime though; probably right up my line of things.
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