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"The SF approach: an awareness that things could have been different, that this is one of many possible worlds, that if you came to this world from some other planet, this would be a science fiction world."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Erased Memory | ||
| A procedure that deletes selected memories from the human mind. |
In the story, Quail is apparently an ordinary man who dreams of making a trip to Mars. Low on funds, he approaches Rekal, Incorporated to have some false memories (extra-factual memories) implanted - he will at least have memories of the trip he wanted.
Unfortunately, there was a pre-existing condition; he actually had gone to Mars, but the memories had been erased.
| "...The trip is very vivid in his mind - at least under sedation. But apparently he doesn't recall it otherwise. Someone, probably at a government military-sciences lab, erased his conscious memories; all he knew was that going to Mars meant something special to him, and so did being a secret agent. They couldn't erase that; it's not a memory but a desire... |
| Technovelgy from We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Fantasy and SF in 1966 Additional resources -
|
This may not be a procedure that can be done more than once:
For an earlier version of this idea, see anti-heptant from Jack Vance's 1956 novel To Live Forever. See also this article on brain erasure from Edmond Hamilton's 1948 story The Knowledge Machine.
"...Maybe they can erase your memory once more, I don't know...
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and Technology from We Can Remember It For You Wholesale
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Tech news articles related to We Can Remember It For You Wholesale
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Erased Memory-related
news articles:
- Amnesia Drugs: Bad Memories Blocked
- Memory-Erasing Chemical
- Selective Memory Deletion In Mice
- Tetris Reduces Emotional Scars
- Can Brains Erase Memories?
- Memory Erasure Thanks To Snails
- DCS May Extinguish Fearful Memories
- Erased Memories In A Flash Of Light
| MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User |
| Bone-Building Drug Evenity Approved |
| BrainBridge Concept Transplant Of Human Head Proposed |
| Natural Gait With Prosthetic Connected To Nervous System |
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'...each of them is a neural mapping of the mind of a Tibetan monk who actually lived.'
'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.'
'... every veephone on the continent would display, over and over, two propositions.'
'Completely silent, accurate up to about twenty meters. No recoil...'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
