Endless Memory: Ethical Questions and Ramifications

Imagine being able to remember every single moment of your life with precise
accuracy. Every triumph, every heart break and every painful memory capable of being
recalled back at any moment in vivid detail. So raw and fresh that even the sensory
information and emotions come back along with the intense memory. Although it sounds
like something out of a comic book, in the future with scientific enhancement it might
become possible to give children such seemingly superhuman capabilities through
genetically engineering them to have exceptional memories. Although pop culture and the
media would lead society to believe that possessing an exceptional memory is a desirable
trait closely correlated to superior intellectual functioning and cognitive processing, this is
a misconception and parents should not ethically be allowed to chose this trait for their
children because of the ramifications. Genetically engineered memory modifications
would result in painful physical and psychological trauma, deficits in cognitive and social
skills, and limited mental capacities as a result of negating the brains evolutionarily
developed ability to forget unnecessary information. These detriments would severely
limit a childs intellectual capabilities throughout their life, as well as possibly subject them
to physical, mental, and emotional harm, and therefore are ethically impermissible.
An exceptional memory is any that deviates widely from the normal physical and
mental limitations of human memory. In contrast to people who use mnemonics or
rehearsal strategies, people with exceptional memories rely on natural memories, which
are involuntarily encoded and do not require the use of memory techniques.

Hyperthymesia, or high superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), is a specific form of

exceptional memory that causes people to be capable of remembering virtually every
autobiographical detail of their lives with near perfect accuracy. Due to biological
differences in their brains that cause uncontrollable associations and the involuntary
encoding and automatic retrieval of memories, people experiencing HSAM remember the
specific and mundane things that ordinary people forget. As a result of the unique way
their memories are encoded, people with HSAM can recall autobiographical memories
with such rich sensory and emotional detail that it is almost as if they are living through
the experience again, regardless of whether the event happened years ago, or just
yesterday. For people with HSAM time heals no wounds. Every angry word, every
disappointment, every mistake, and every moment of pain is remembered and remains
unforgotten forever. In the words of hyperthymesiac Jill Price, "I don't look back at the
past with any distance. It's more like experiencing everything over and over again, and
those memories trigger exactly the same emotions in me. It's like an endless, chaotic film
that can completely overpower me. And there's no stop button" (Sukel, 2012) . Similarly,
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eidetic memory, commonly known as photographic memory or total recall, is another
form of exceptional memory that allows people to recall images, objects and sounds with
remarkable precision without the use of mnemonics or other artificial memory encoding
techniques. In some cases of eidetic memory, images are remembered so vividly as to
mimic actual perception of sensory stimuli, much like a hallucination or states of psychosis
in schizophrenic patients who lose contact with reality. Excessive thinking and
reexperiencing of ones past can be disturbing and traumatic, especially in cases of PTSD
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Sukel,K.(2012).Thepeoplewhoneverforget.NewScientist,215(2878),3437.

or sexual assault. However, even something like being bullied on the playground can scar
a person for life, and therefore it would not be ethically permissible to force a child to
have to lucidly remember every moment of their life.
Society in general wrongly relates exceptional memories to superior cognitive
functioning. This misconception is the result of pop culture and the medias portrayal of
fictional characters with exceptional memories; inaccurate and sensationalized depiction
of young people with amazing abilities and exceptional memories leads parent to think
that having one is best for their children. For example, Klaus Baudelaire, a teenage genius
from Lemony Snickets A Series of Unfortunate Events, uses his eidetic memory to learn
multiple languages, remember virtually everything he reads from books and help rescue
his orphan siblings from dangerous situations. Another example is Nickelodeons The
Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius television series, which featured 11 year old
Jimmy Neutron with a stunning IQ and natural talent for science, who wielded his
extraordinary memory to repeatedly save his home town of Retroville. Similarly, Cartoon
Networks Dexters Laboratory showcased a ten year old boy-genius, Dexter, who in
addition to conducting experiments and creating inventions in his secret laboratory,
possessed an exceptional memory. From a parents perspective it would seem logically
ethical to enhance their own childs memory in order to enable them to perfectly recall
knowledge and facts to excel academically, have a higher IQ, and the greatest possibility of
success in life.
However, in reality the possession of an innate exceptional memory is not equated
to being a genius, and in most cases is the symptom of a mental or genetic disorder. For

instance, Kim Peek, also known as megasavant, who allegedly memorized at least 12,000
books suffered from a mental disorder called Savant Syndrome. Although he was capable
of speeding through a book in an hour and memorizing vast amounts of information in
subjects ranging from history to literature to music and dates, he had difficulty
performing ordinary motor movements and scored below average on IQ tests. Like most
savants, despite exhibiting extraordinary abilities in highly specialized areas, his mental
disability caused both cognitive and social abnormalities which indicates that there is no
correlation between exceptional memory and superior cognitive functions.
In the same way, the extraordinary mnemonist Solomon Shereshevsky, who
memorized complex mathematical formulas and even poems in foreign languages in a
matter of minutes, was hindered by his exceptional memory. Shereshevsky suffered form
a severe case of fivefold synaesthesia in which any stimulation produced a response in
every sense, which enhanced his ability to store and access memories. Unfortunately, it
also produced unnecessary images and feelings that resulted in him having trouble
reading because written words often evoked distracting sensations. Similarly, the unusual
interest in dates associated with HSAM might be a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
in which instead of hoarding stamps, shoes or postcards, people hoard memories, dates
and events. Which illustrates the fact that although it is widely believed that memory
enhancement leads to superior intelligence, this is a misconception proliferated by the
media and pop culture. Ethically, unless parents, the scientific community, and society as a
whole are properly educated and aware of the ramifications of engineering this trait into
children, they are not fit to make a moral decision that ensures the best outcome in terms

of the childs life and prosperity.

On the other hand, some argue that as a superhuman capability, exceptional
memory is the next step in the evolution of human beings and that with time, a method to
genetically modify memories can be developed that does not have deleterious
ramifications. However, according to Darwinian evolution, the human brain has
evolutionarily evolved to forget and have memory limitations because in terms of survival
of the fittest, the ability to forget helped increase mankinds chances of survival. Although
there is controversy related to how memories are stored and forgotten, in general it is
believed that through inhibiting the strengthening and creation of new associations
amongst synapses, the brain makes memories inaccessible in order to conserve energy
and free up brain power for other tasks. Forgetting serves the purpose of pruning and
replenishing the mind, allowing it to effectively adapt and learn. A failure in cognitive
capacity to forget superfluous information due to a lack of inhibition, as seen in cases of
HSAM, results in continual, unstoppable memory retrieval. Constant remembering of the
past can be physically exhausting and disruptive to an average days activities because it
consumes a persons working memory capacity and can cause deficits in both their
executive and cognitive skills. Forgetting is crucial to a healthy brain and normal minds
are constantly evaluating, editing, sorting and erasing vast amounts of repetitive or
nonessential information (Kuhl et al., 2007) . In contrast to what society believes, the
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natural ability to forget is essential for a healthy and productive mind; genetic alterations
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Kuhl,B.A.,Dudukovic,N.M.,Kahn,I.,&Wagner,A.D.(2007).Decreaseddemandsoncognitivecontrolrevealthe
neuralprocessingbenefitsofforgetting.Natureneuroscience,10(7),908914.

to enhance a childs memory, although seemingly beneficial, would destroy the minds
ability to perform specific functions and restrict an individuals capacity.
In general, society is terribly uninformed about the implications of exceptional
memories due to the inaccurate portrayal of superior memories by the media and pop
culture. Although in most cases of exceptional memories individuals gain almost
superhuman capabilities, the very trait that makes them so extraordinary also serves as a
detriment, often crippling their intellectual and social skills. Genetically modifying the
memory capacities of children is wrong from an ethical perspective and does not stand up
to moral evaluation because its detriments would severely limit a childs capabilities in life.
The study of exceptional memories is still relatively new, and so before peoples genes
are altered to enhance their memories, more research must be done to ensure that
artificial, or genetic memory enhancements do not produce the same negative physical or
psychological effects observed in naturally occurring exceptional memories.