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An interesting article which deals with different forms of mind control and an ability to tamper with a memory.
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We discussed free will and what separates us from machines or animals. But how much or a free will is genuine. I for one would have liked to experiment with some external influence to improve my memory or perhaps instill some discipline into my mind. So in other words that would makes us no different than machines with a future science advancement, technology or time. I doubt I would want my memory to be erased, since most of our experience contribute to our self growth.
Would you want your mind to be altered, your memory improved or erased or certain qualities to be implemented into your character, without your own “manual” effort?
American neuroscientists are currently developing "memory-management" drugs. They believe that such pills could help individuals improve their memory skills or even erase unwanted memories, such as that bad childhood experience lurking at the back of your mind.
According to Eric Kandel, a Nobel Prize-winning memory researcher at Columbia University in Manhattan, memory-improving and memory-deleting medicines may be available within five to 10 years. More than 40 drugs aimed at improving memory are currently going through clinical trials with the US Food and Drug Administration.
Hypnosis meanwhile, where individuals are put into a trance-like state, is big business - both as treatment and entertainment. Hypnotists, or "registered hypnotherapists" as most prefer to be called, claim that they can help people give up smoking.
Others claim that advertising is a form of mind control, where subliminal messages are planted in our minds by sneaky corporations who want us to buy their products.
Indeed, according to reports, we will soon enter the age of "hypersonic messaging", in which advertisers hope to use advances in neurotechnology to bombard people's brains with signals to trigger purchases.
According to Eric Kandel, a Nobel Prize-winning memory researcher at Columbia University in Manhattan, memory-improving and memory-deleting medicines may be available within five to 10 years. More than 40 drugs aimed at improving memory are currently going through clinical trials with the US Food and Drug Administration.
Hypnosis meanwhile, where individuals are put into a trance-like state, is big business - both as treatment and entertainment. Hypnotists, or "registered hypnotherapists" as most prefer to be called, claim that they can help people give up smoking.
Others claim that advertising is a form of mind control, where subliminal messages are planted in our minds by sneaky corporations who want us to buy their products.
Indeed, according to reports, we will soon enter the age of "hypersonic messaging", in which advertisers hope to use advances in neurotechnology to bombard people's brains with signals to trigger purchases.
According to Stern, there can be good mind control and bad mind control. "In its best sense, mind control is akin to self-control, often used as a product of meditation. This can be helpful for pain management.
"But then there are things like cults - there, mind control happens when a cult wins over another person's consciousness through hypnotic-like inducements including 'love bombs', a form of praise, overseeing an inductee's every action, and eventually using shame and the threat of being expelled by the cult as a means of controlling them."
Mind control is a relatively recent concept. It first emerged in the aftermath of the Korean war, when it was claimed that the Chinese had carried out mind control experiments on US prisoners of war, as depicted in the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate.
There are various hypothetical techniques of mind control: among them
*the use of drugs, such as "truth serum", to induce a more relaxed state of mind;
*hypnosis, where an individual is put into a trance-like state usually in order to recover memories;
*Pavlovian conditioning, named after experiments carried out by the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov in the early 20th Century, where he described how we are "conditioned" into certain types of behaviour; and
*indoctrination, where an authoritative body uses propaganda or the threat of force to shape individuals' minds and belief systems.
"But then there are things like cults - there, mind control happens when a cult wins over another person's consciousness through hypnotic-like inducements including 'love bombs', a form of praise, overseeing an inductee's every action, and eventually using shame and the threat of being expelled by the cult as a means of controlling them."
Mind control is a relatively recent concept. It first emerged in the aftermath of the Korean war, when it was claimed that the Chinese had carried out mind control experiments on US prisoners of war, as depicted in the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate.
There are various hypothetical techniques of mind control: among them
*the use of drugs, such as "truth serum", to induce a more relaxed state of mind;
*hypnosis, where an individual is put into a trance-like state usually in order to recover memories;
*Pavlovian conditioning, named after experiments carried out by the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov in the early 20th Century, where he described how we are "conditioned" into certain types of behaviour; and
*indoctrination, where an authoritative body uses propaganda or the threat of force to shape individuals' minds and belief systems.
We discussed free will and what separates us from machines or animals. But how much or a free will is genuine. I for one would have liked to experiment with some external influence to improve my memory or perhaps instill some discipline into my mind. So in other words that would makes us no different than machines with a future science advancement, technology or time. I doubt I would want my memory to be erased, since most of our experience contribute to our self growth.
Would you want your mind to be altered, your memory improved or erased or certain qualities to be implemented into your character, without your own “manual” effort?
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