Don’t Trust Your Organic Memories
That is the case one of the characters tries to make in the Black Mirror episode, The Entire History of You. There have been many times I’ve been in an argument or recall something and another person remembers it differently. Recently I reminded a friend about an embarrassing tattoo idea she once had, and she angrily denied that ever happened. I’ve often thought in those moments how great it would be if we could record these memories and share them (because I love winning arguments, especially embarrassing ones).
Last week I read about how Elon Musk has started a company with the goal of developing something called Neural Lace. Neural Lace is supposedly intended to act as some sort of interface that directly links human brains and computers. You can share your thoughts, mental images, etc. on a computer or a computer could influence your brain in some way. This is something we already see with technologies that allow paralyzed people to walk or blind people to regain their sight. It is surely a sign of the amazing time we live in that I can write about these things as if they are right around the corner, instead of in some sci fi fantasy.
There are other aspects of this episode that we are somewhat already experiencing. This was particularly true with the reminiscing among the group of friends at the party. Many times, I have been reminded of funny old memories on Facebook and shared them so that my friends and I could remember them together. And that’s all fine and dandy until the memory is something you don’t want to recollect.
At the beginning of the episode, Liam has a job interview. At the end of the interview, they ask Liam if he is ok with the company looking through all of his memories from the past while. He said he is fine with it and that he has nothing to hide. Many times in class we have talked about old social media stuff coming back to haunt us. We delete old photos or dumb tweets that we wouldn’t want a boss to see because we know they are already looking for them.
The major plot point of the episode revolves around Liam suspecting and confirming that his wife has had an affair. He does this by replaying memories of his own, of his wife’s, and of the man she cheated on him with. He even watches his wife’s memory of having sex with the other man in their own bed. It’s a painful scenario to watch.
Many months ago I came across a meme that instructed “girls” how to look up what pictures their partner liked so that they could “go start some drama”. I know many people who have snooped through their partners social media and messages to catch them cheating. As Liam put it, “You know when you suspect something, it’s always better when it turns out to be true”. And from what I’ve seen, that is the prevailing mentality regarding snooping and cheating. I read a study once in which the majority of participants felt it was morally ok to snoop if they ended up catching an infidelity. However, the majority also believed it was morally bad to snoop if no evidence came up. I undoubtedly believe that Liam’s scenario would get played out if technology enabled us to record memories in this way.
The episode ends with a depressed and lonely Liam reliving memories from his marriage until he finally uses a razor to extract the grain device from his head. That moment reminded me of something from my own life. My parents split up when I was three and I have no memories of them together. It didn’t end well so neither of them would have pictures of the other around their own houses. One day a few years ago, I came across a box in my mom’s basement in which she had her old wedding photos and love letters from my dad. I had never seen any of these things before. In the world we currently live in, memories that hurt can be packed up and put out of sight and mind. Maybe they are too important to completely let go of. However, they are probably not something you want to be reminded of on Facebook or worse, have the ability to relive on a whim. So, if and when the entire history of you is available in that way, it will be a lot of things. It will be great for winning arguments, catching liars and terrorists, and vividly remembering the good times. But it will allow people to pick at bad and potentially traumatic memories like they are scabs. And that might make it very hard to move on to making new memories.
