TOTAL RECALL is generally remembered for the three-breated hooker, Arnold Schwarzenegger fighting Sharon Stone, blue skies on Mars, and the not so great remake starring Colin Farrell. What it is generally not remembered for is the scientific accuracy of the memory technology at the story’s core.
Looks like that last one just became more legitimate. According to Blastr, Case Western Reserve University neuoscientists have published a study in Science Daily in which they successfully implanted short-term memories in brain tissue.
The researchers also demonstrated that they could generate memories for specific contexts, such as whether a particular pathway was activated alone or as part of a sequence of stimuli to different inputs. Changes in ongoing activity of hippocampal neurons accurately distinguished between two temporal sequences, akin to humans recognizing the difference between two different song melodies.
No confirmation as to whether or not the mice ended up thinking that they were double agents and had to battle for the fate of humanity on an alien world, but I certainly think that is a viable possibility.
It is pretty awesome that we live in a world where the technology in our fiction is finally reaching a point where it can become fact. We often take for granted how the imaginations of George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry, and countless others have served as the beta-testing for our scientists.
Now, they just need to get to work on that three-breasted hooker.
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed