Are all of your memories real?
Did everything happen
the way you remember it?
What if somebody filled your brain
with memories that aren't yours?
A memory is made in three major steps:
encoding information,
storing it,
and then retrieving it.
And it all happens here.
Your brain has approximately 100 billion neurons,
all passing signals back and forth,
through a complex network
of 1,000 trillion synaptic connections.
Your memories aren't tucked away
in one specific place in your brain.
Instead, they are kept in different groups of neurons,
which are called engrams.
And there are a few ways to hack them.
In 2016, researchers at MIT
implanted a false memory
into a mouse.
They did it with the help of a technique
called optogenetics.
Basically, they genetically engineered mice
to have a gene that responds to light.
And then they fired lasers
to stimulate that gene.
But you don't need to undergo any genetic engineering
to have false memories.
It's relatively easy to manipulate your brain
into thinking that it's storing information
it doesn't actually have.
Memories of traumatic events
can be especially vulnerable
to outside influences.
There are cases of people remembering
being abducted by aliens,
when in reality, they weren't.
Other people remembered being present
at satanic rituals where humans were sacrificed,
even though they weren't.
All these people can thank hypnotherapists,
and their ability to plant false memories
using only the power of suggestion.
Memories are not really a reality.
They are something that can be created,
molded and influenced.
That's why eyewitnesses aren't too reliable
when it comes to describing the details
of a crime scene.
For example, in one study,
test subjects were shown footage of car accidents,
and 26% of them "remembered" seeing a bus,
despite there not being any bus in the footage.
We are having false memories
fed to our brains on a daily basis,
through social media and news.
With the studies currently underway,
it's possible that a more direct,
"in-brain" connection could be made
and used to manipulate and create memories.
If that happens, who would make the call
on uploading false memories?
Would the person receiving them
be aware of what was happening?
Maybe we could use these kinds of memory implants
to reform criminals faster,
or help make a dying person's
final days better for them.
Would we make businesses that implant fake vacations?
Or rewrite the memories
of some traumatic events?
Someone suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder
could have their memory wiped clean
and start their life again.
We could overwrite the memories of abuse,
or upload memories that would help
a person to cope with a difficult situation from their past.
And it would all seem so real,
they might never know it wasn't.
In the future, we could implant memories
that form a decent moral code
in everyone on the planet,
and create a respectful society free of crime.
On the other hand,
this could go very wrong, in so many ways.
The technology could be used
to alter the neurons in a person's brain,
making them feel something they really don't,
or think they did something they actually didn't.
Would you trust your medical professional
if you required a memory implant?
I would rather upload my brain to the cloud,
and become digitally immortal.
But that's a story for another WHAT IF.