Monday, April 6, 2009

MAIMING THE MEMORY MOLECULE...

I'm reading more about the neuroscientists' identification of the "memory molecule" in the human brain which could be manipulated by doctors to allow people's bad and traumatic memories to be erased. All I can think about in connection with this are Stepford wives; people who underwent frontal lobotomies years ago (thereby turning into emotionless people); and ROBOTS!
What would happen to self-discipline, self-responsibility, moral conscience, the recognition that humans are born with free will... ?
What would happen to the texture and richness of a human life well and fully lived... ?
The possibilities have so many twists and turns...
If Aesop had known about this, his morality fables might have included a Bo Peep type story in which we all turned into easily led, easily managed human sheep.
R.A.T. (Rose About Town) is REALLY worried about this one. Tie it in with the probability of an all-encompassing government being in charge of our health care, and you have a monstrous new version of a medical drama that dwarfs the fear factor of Robin Cook's "Coma."