3 ms·

Artificial memories in humans have already been done. In the 1980's there was an epidemic of psychologists implanting memories of sexual abuse in children who g

Artificial memories in humans have already been done. In the 1980's there was an epidemic of psychologists implanting memories of sexual abuse in children who grew up believing they had actually been abused.

wruza 7y ago
Interesting how much of #metoo could relate to these phenomena.
- rsynnott 7y ago
  Eh? You mean, "not at all"? I assume they're talking about the 'satanic ritual abuse' collective delusion here. In this, young children were convinced, through improper questioning (largely by untrained police, not proper psychologists AIUI), that they'd been exposed to some pretty non-specific abuse, often with supernatural elements. This is worlds apart from an adult saying, spontaneously and without any brainwashing from the police, that they were abused by a specific person.
  - wruza 7y ago
    I only asked on similarities of big public involvement in both cases. If vague memories or feelings can turn into false memories under high informational stream, could it be related? I didn’t mean anything that could be viewed as a refusal or silly joking. I have a couple of my false memories myself, and these feel very real (but still false). What prevents few of metoo public-induced cases to be alike?
function_seven 7y ago
I have my own example of this. Something I remember with clarity, but didn't happen. Not as horrific as sexual abuse, but close enough to convince me how fallible our memories are. A few years ago a friend an I were having dinner at a restaurant. The waiter came by to serve water, and as he was filling our glasses, he would raise the pitcher up very high above the glass while saying to himself, "Easy, Franciso... Eeeasy!" It was funny. Except that's not what happened at all. What really happened was that we were there at dinner when my friend told me the story of some other time he had a waiter that did just that. He must have described it to me in sufficient detail for me to form the mental image and merge it with our dinner that night. A couple years later, I start telling this story as if I had been there, to a group of people that included my friend from that night. That's when I learned that it was a false memory. It was disorienting to say the least. As soon as this was pointed out to me, I did remember the real conversation and him telling me.
jmkni 7y ago
I think that there is an Adam Curtis documentary about this, I can't remember the name however.

wruza 7y ago

Interesting how much of #metoo could relate to these phenomena.

rsynnott 7y ago
Eh? You mean, "not at all"? I assume they're talking about the 'satanic ritual abuse' collective delusion here. In this, young children were convinced, through improper questioning (largely by untrained police, not proper psychologists AIUI), that they'd been exposed to some pretty non-specific abuse, often with supernatural elements. This is worlds apart from an adult saying, spontaneously and without any brainwashing from the police, that they were abused by a specific person.
- wruza 7y ago
  I only asked on similarities of big public involvement in both cases. If vague memories or feelings can turn into false memories under high informational stream, could it be related? I didn’t mean anything that could be viewed as a refusal or silly joking. I have a couple of my false memories myself, and these feel very real (but still false). What prevents few of metoo public-induced cases to be alike?

function_seven 7y ago

I have my own example of this. Something I remember with clarity, but didn't happen. Not as horrific as sexual abuse, but close enough to convince me how fallible our memories are. A few years ago a friend an I were having dinner at a restaurant. The waiter came by to serve water, and as he was filling our glasses, he would raise the pitcher up very high above the glass while saying to himself, "Easy, Franciso... Eeeasy!" It was funny. Except that's not what happened at all. What really happened was that we were there at dinner when my friend told me the story of some other time he had a waiter that did just that. He must have described it to me in sufficient detail for me to form the mental image and merge it with our dinner that night. A couple years later, I start telling this story as if I had been there, to a group of people that included my friend from that night. That's when I learned that it was a false memory. It was disorienting to say the least. As soon as this was pointed out to me, I did remember the real conversation and him telling me.

jmkni 7y ago

I think that there is an Adam Curtis documentary about this, I can't remember the name however.