Imagine, it comes out of nowhere.
A blinding flash, spanning the entire globe.
It lasts only a few seconds,
but when it's over,
everyone's memories
have been erased.
We’re talking almost 8 billion people
suddenly forgetting who they are,
overwhelmed by panic and confusion.
So, the event we’ll refer to as “the flash”
happens all over the world,
and the result is a massive case of amnesia
for the entire human race.
Losing your memory doesn’t necessarily mean
you forget how to function.
You can still understand how to stay alive,
that you need to eat,
and to avoid danger.
Other than that,
it’s a fresh start
- for everyone on the planet.
In a word, hysteria.
Anything could happen!
This event would essentially
press the reset button on humanity,
minus all those years of evolution.
Instead of trying to wrap our heads
around the concept of fire,
we might be holding our smartphones
to the skies and shaking them madly.
You wouldn’t know
who your friends or family were.
Or, in an even more awkward situation,
who you were making out with
before the flash.
And those are
the less devastating consequences.
At any given moment in time
there are anywhere from 8,000
20,000 planes in the air.
It’s bad news for everyone on board
(not to mention anyone below)
when the pilot forgets how to work
this strange flying contraption.
On land, things won't be much better.
We have millions of cars on the road
at any given time,
plus buses, transport trucks,
limos and motorcycles.
If you thought there were bad drivers before,
brace yourself!
Money and social structure
would become a thing of the past.
We might be able to acknowledge
that someone is dressed
a little better than we are,
but we’d have no context to explain why.
Criminals like murderers
and violent offenders could be released,
with no memories of their crimes.
Let’s hope the desire to commit evil deeds
was wiped out along with their memories.
And healthwise, we’d be in bad shape,
as our doctors, nurses
and other medical professionals
would forget their training,
and all those years of experience.
In summary, it would be
a really, really bad day.
We would have to rebuild our society,
piecing together bits and pieces
from our former lives.
After the dust settled,
would this fresh start be a good thing?
Things like political tension would be erased,
and some countries
may not have borders anymore.
Or could it go the other way,
with the world becoming a lawless wasteland?
To figure this out,
let’s look at how your memory actually works.
Your memories are formed when proteins
stimulate your brain cells to grow
and form new connections.
You're literally rewiring your mind.
However, the longer you keep a memory around,
the more unstable it becomes.
If you’ve noticed your memory of something
changing over time,
or people saying your story is different,
it’s probably due to a process
called reconsolidation.
Every time you recall a memory,
your brain gets re-wired again.
It's sort of like an old video tape.
Even if you love the movie,
the more you play it,
the more wear and tear it receives.
Now, there have been cases of those
metaphorical tapes being wiped clean,
by various different causes
and types of amnesia.
While something this massive
isn’t likely to occur,
memory loss is a documented
medical phenomenon,
ranging from losing a few hours
to more extreme cases
like forgetting 20 years.
But could something besides an accident
or illness wipe our memories?
Well, there have been studies
of what can happen to memories
when a chemical called norepinephrine
is blocked by the brain.
Norepinephrine is responsible
for your fight or flight reflex.
By blocking norepinephrine,
researchers believe they can stop memories
from being connected to negative emotions.
In 2015, a research team
based in the Netherlands used a drug
called propranolol to block norepinephrine
in a group of people
suffering from arachnophobia.
Over the span of three months,
the participants given propranolol
had their negative memories of spiders
reduced enough that they could
actually hold onto a tarantula
Their negative emotions and fear
had basically been erased.
A common side effect of propranolol
is short term memory loss,
but could a higher, controlled dose
actually wipe memories?
Only time will tell.
Let’s hope something like this doesn’t happen.
But if it did, could we prepare for it?
Could we somehow develop a technology
to store our memories?
What if we could upload our brains
for future use?