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A comment on The growing science of memory manipulation. Parent comment

Re:The growing science of memory manipulation by weinzierl on Tuesday September 03, 2019 @03:31AM (#20864346)
In "Ghost in the Shell" there is a sub plot with a man who talks all day about his family until it is revealed to him that it is all false memories. I always found this one of the most horrifying scenes in the movie.
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Re:The growing science of memory manipulation by justinjlynn on Tuesday September 03, 2019 @04:04AM (#20864518)
Indeed. For me, the worst bit is that they explicitly, for no reason other than to inform us, say they won't be able to repair the damage.
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Re:The growing science of memory manipulation by pmoriarty on Tuesday September 03, 2019 @04:57PM (#20871090)
This was already in Blade Runner (which Ghost in the Shell was doubtlessly influenced by), where the replicants have photographs of their families, who never existed, as they were implanted memories.

Ironically, I don't remember if this was in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (which Blade Runner was loosely based on), but even if it's not, it's a very common theme in Philip K Dick's work.

A similar thing happens in Total Recall, which was also loosely based on PKD's We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, where memories of the protagonist's family and prevois life have been implanted. In this case, the protagonist does not rely on photographs, as he has a wife in the present, but (spoiler) it turns out she's not really his wife.

Oliver Sacks is also worth reading on these themes, as he tells of many real-life cases of people misremembering, misrecognizing, and disbelieving things most everyone else takes for granted, from faces to family to their own body parts to language.

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Re:The growing science of memory manipulation by tzs on Tuesday September 03, 2019 @12:21PM (#20868148)
ST:TNG, season 5, episode 25, "The Inner Light" broadly could be described similarly, except whether it is horrifying or wonderful is hard to decide. One of the best TNG episodes.
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