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I remember sitting at a bar in a distant city in some other country one night, and the person next to me, who I had just met that day, suggested that we do a sh
by adriand 8y ago
I remember sitting at a bar in a distant city in some other country one night, and the person next to me, who I had just met that day, suggested that we do a shot together. Now these shots were big, and it had already been quite the night, and I remember thinking, "If I do this shot, it's probably the last thing I'll remember tonight."
It was, but that's not the point of this anecdote. This experience gave me the idea for the premise of a sci-fi story: a drug which, once taken, has no affect on you whatsoever outside of one crucial impact, which is that whatever happens while you're on it, you won't remember once it wears off a few hours later.
The scientific findings related in this article seem to indicate that developing such a drug would be possible. Would people take it? I suspect they would, although I also suspect that it would lead to regrettable behaviour. (That is probably, in fact, its chief advantage.) What about you - would you take it?
Are experiences less meaningful if you don't remember them?
- zumu 8y agoThis sounds pretty close to my experience with Xanax.
- stickydink 8y agoPassing time without any knowledge or memory is probably the main reason to be taking drugs in prison. Yours sounds like the perfect, side-effect free solution!
- notheguyouthink 8y agoInterestingly, I wouldn't use it for that (if at all), because it doesn't actually pass the time at all. You still live the time, experiencing it in full. Ie, a boring day would still be a boring day. On the flip side, a drug that let you retroactively forget would be heavily used I bet. Traumatic experiences are often wished to be forgotten. Though, I wonder what a human would be like if they didn't have negative experiences. One who was able to remove a big portion of mind shaping experiences. Further yet, I wonder if your mind ever truly forgets. If a dog bites you as a kid, and then you take the forget pill, are you still afraid of dogs?
- digi_owl 8y agoI ran into an article recently that hinted that memory erasure may well be possible in the near future...
- 1996 8y agoanterograde amnesia is a property of some anesthesics used in emergency: the basic idea is that it may hurt, but the patient won't remember. (actually, it is more of a dissociative effect - ketamine does that)
- toomanybeersies 8y agoKetamine absolutely stops you from feeling pain. It's one of the things that's dangerous about using it recreationally, you can injure yourself and not even be aware of it. Your leg could be bleeding out, but you're too ketty to notice and just keep partying on. I haven't seen anybody seriously injured form this, but I've heard second hand stories.
- limeblack 8y agoHaldol often can cause complete memory loss in a portion of the population. I have actually worked with drug. Has a bunch of other side effects long term so I don't reccomend it.
- cryptozeus 8y agoNo I would not want to take it. "buyers remorse" will be so huge that I will regret for the rest of my life. For example if something bad happened then its fine but if something good happen and I can't remember, that would suck !
- jacoblambda 8y agoAlternatively, what happens if you are accused for a crime that you didn't commit during your "blackout period"?
- digi_owl 8y agoWhile not a crime, i had some friends be very pissed off when i awoke from being blacked out drunk. To this day i do not know what faux pas i did...
- wavefunction 8y agoHave you asked them? What sort of friends cannot broach the subject with you? There's no reason to continue living in that situation if you can make amends or discover that they judged you in a faulty manner.
- harlanji 8y agoSeconded. They probably can’t remember. It’s a powerful thing to hold over somebody. If they ever fancy a chick who’s fancying you at a party for example, with that type of person something is sure to come out to put yhem above you. I’ve had some shitty drinking buddies and cut them all out of my life. Good riddance. Life is for fucking up and growing, which requires feedback.
- laumars 8y agoNot remembering committing a crime has never been a valid defence thus far and we have drugs that cause far more extreme behavioural changes besides just memory loss.
- IAmGraydon 8y agoSuch a drug exists. Namely, anything of the benzodiazepine class.
- jackmodern 8y agobingo^ short/longterm memories will be shot full of holes when on benzos for a while. even one night of benzo usage and you will forget most of the night, mix in a beer by accident and the whole night will be erased.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- analogmemory 8y agoMost people recognize that as Ambien https://popula.com/2018/07/22/the-ambien-diaries/ https://popula.com/2018/07/22/the-ambien-diaries/
- firethief 8y agoAmbien is not a benzo. The bizarre behaviour it causes seems to be related to sleepwalking, which is not a common side effect of benzodiazepines.
- djsumdog 8y agoI met someone who was on a clinical trial for Ambien. He'd pass out almost immediately, but first he'd see crazy wild hallucinations. But only for like 15 seconds to a minute. When it was finally released on the market, the dosage was a fraction of what he had take in his clinical trial.
- hutzlibu 8y agoI think you have to feel really crazy adventurous or desperate for money, to become a guinea pig for new drugs, that mess with your brain ...
- 8y ago
- ZainRiz 8y agoThere might be a market for this with high end consultants or psychiatrists as a more secure alternative to signing an NDA. It'll be something similar to the movie Paycheck You give the consultant the drug, then proceed to share your secrets with them and get their expert advice on your issue. Then by the end of the day/week/whatever they'll forget everything you told them and your secrets will be secure.
- digi_owl 8y agoI recall a cyberpunk RPG had an implant that did something similar. It blocked the transfer between short and long term memory.
- Cyphase 8y agoPhilip K. Dick explored this idea in his short story "Paycheck"[0], which was made into a movie[1]. Edit: Did you edit your comment? I'm pretty sure you hadn't mentioned Paycheck. No problem, just making sure I'm not going crazy. :) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_(short_story) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_(film)
- Waterluvian 8y agoI feel that fundamentally won't work. Experts like that become experts because they are exposed to years and years of clients. One can build useful abstractions without giving away secrets.
- ZainRiz 8y ago
- phs318u 8y agoI may be mistaken but believe William Gibson had a similar concept in one of his novels where prostitutes would work while in such a state. They could do disturbing work and be free of the consequences of those memories. I also believe that if such a drug were available it would find first use in the military by certain specialist units.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoNeuromancer was the novel, “meat puppet” was the term.
- hammock 8y agoThey made a movie about that- it's called Men In Black.
- djsumdog 8y agoThey don't often willingly get their memorizes blanked though.
- bpizzi 8y agoPersonnaly I would never use such a drug. I conceptualise myself as a tought-based kernel with a bunch of meat around to make it run. This kernel tries hardly to think about itself as 'one thing' (you don't achieve much with schizophrenia), and that relies heavily on this kernel being able to trace a continuous stream of tought back to its birth (at least as far as it can remember). Alter this stream and you loose yourself (the bigger the altering the bigger the loosing). Two more things: (i) I'm aware that not everybody thinks the same, mainly because fellow humans acts as a constant reminder of who you were before, and (ii) yes, sleeping is disturbing to me, I try not to think about it too much.
- remedan 8y agoWhat's your opinion on the common teleportation dilemma? If there were a machine, that would instantly destroy my body and assemble it somewhere else (even from completely different atoms) so that from my point of view, I instantly vanish and appear elsewhere, does this count as interruption to my line of consciousness? Doesn't really seem like it to me. After all, my memories and thoughts are stored in the patterns of matter and those are preserved.
- bpizzi 8y agoTeleportation isn't very concerning to me, because it's basically against known physic rules for now on. Theoretically I would be very wary of teleportation, on a pragmatic level: if I don't own the teleportation process on an extreme level then there's too much risk to be altered in some (maybe dramatic) way. However, there's a variant that sucks my thoughts sometimes: what about transferring a full brain's backup into a valid recipient? Classical application would be life extension: going into a "blank" body/brain (or big enough computer) when mine is too old to carry on. It's still very inconceivable nowadays, but much more attainable than teleportation I think. You can't "switch off" the old brain, copy it, and "switch on" the new one, because that would pose the same questions as teleportation. Neither I wouldn't start a copy process, wait for it to complete, commit suicide and set alive the new body/brain in the same time. The obvious solution would be to find a way to connect two brains (be it an organically or computerized brain), extend the thought in such a way that there would be full redundancy of memories between the two devices, and the switch off the old one. I guess I read too much hard sci-fi :)
- dotancohen 8y agoIt would become a "rape drug" slipped into drinks. The new Roofies.
- ionised 8y agoSounds like scopolamine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyoscine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyoscine
- dboreham 8y agoMike Tyson, a Tiger..
- kuwze 8y agoThat is an exact description of "Soy Sauce" from the "John Dies at the End" series.
- jlebrech 8y agoI'd like to take a pill that helps you forget movies so I can rewatch them.
- AnimalMuppet 8y agoBut then you also wouldn't know which ones to not bother rewatching...
- jlebrech 8y agoIMDB top 100
- thx11389793 8y agocommonly accomplished by smoking a largish joint beforehand.