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A Drug That Could Give You Perfect Visual Memory

io9.com — Imagine if you could look at something once and remember it forever. You would never have to ask for directions again. Now a group of scientists has isolated a protein that mega-boosts your ability to remember what you see.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 3, 2009

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  • acephreak, on 07/03/2009, -21/+237.................................................#..+#####.###.......................................................
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    HI, BILLY MAYS HERE FOR PERFECT VISUAL MEMORY DRUG!
  • ghidorahnotweak, on 07/02/2009, -2/+185Some things you see you just don't *want* to remember.
  • popzero, on 07/03/2009, -1/+176Pro: No need to store porn = more hard drive space.
    Con: Tubgirl.
  • inactive, on 07/02/2009, -1/+94What has been seen cannot be unseen.
  • inactive, on 07/03/2009, -3/+94I take drugs to help me forget.
  • kamikaze134, on 07/03/2009, -2/+62The downside: you look at goatse once, and remember it vividly forever.
  • CancerBomb, on 07/03/2009, -1/+58This is actually true, but not just in the obvious way (i.e. wanting to forget bad times). There are people who have incredible memories such that they are able to recall exactly what they did on any given day, even decades in the past with a great amount of detail. However, these people often feel tortured by their memories not only because remembering an event is so vivid it's just like reliving it for them, but also because they can't stop being flooded by memories for a single waking moment. Forgetting, apparently, helps us to stay sane.
  • copypastry, on 07/03/2009, -0/+51Just don't go online while using it.
  • Nboy514, on 07/03/2009, -1/+42You sir win 2 internets!
  • kplo, on 07/02/2009, -1/+33I'll take it!
  • inactive, on 07/03/2009, -3/+34***** my life if this starts to appear in every thread.
  • Nboy514, on 07/03/2009, -0/+30So this is one neurophysiologists gripe with this badly written article. First of all, V2 doesn't in any way shape or form make memories. V2 is a basic visual center, that relays information to the hippocampus (among other areas) which then creates an engram. It's also important to remember that this was in rodents, which identify salient novel objects in an environment which is very adaptive for them, but not so much with respect to us. To remember everything you've seen would be overwhelming to say the least. 90% of what we see in a day is forgotten because it isn't adaptive. The Science article is great, but lets not sensationalize the upregulation of a single protein to mean the be all and end all of visual memories.
  • AbyssNOLF, on 07/02/2009, -2/+27Yeah, this is a double-edged sword. I may want to remember a lot more things than I want to forget, but the things I want to forget may be more important forgetting than remembering everything else.
  • damack, on 07/03/2009, -1/+22Imagine some poor guy popping one of these before watching Transformers 2 and being scarred for life!
  • maz2331, on 07/03/2009, -0/+18No pill is needed for that one. It's indelibly etched into a lot of people's memories.
  • ebcreasoner, on 07/03/2009, -0/+17Well you're ***** now!
  • Presbyterian, on 07/03/2009, -6/+23"they may have stumbled upon a substance that could "

    Or maybe they didn't and it won't.

    Thanks for the non-story.
  • getoffmybridge, on 07/03/2009, -0/+15Tubgirl and Goatse are images that I think anyone will remember, even without the drug.
  • evermuzik, on 07/03/2009, -0/+14*furiously applauds*
  • oxdeltaxo, on 07/03/2009, -0/+13So would you like the red pill or the blue pill?
  • WilliamAdama, on 07/03/2009, -2/+15Are people ***** kidding me, complaining about this drug? I'll take it in a heart beat if it improves my memory. I don't mind doing extremely well in school and giving myself an educational advantage.
  • CrazyChair, on 07/03/2009, -1/+13http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8894/kaneklapqo ...
  • rambomcfly, on 07/03/2009, -0/+12I'm really glad protein RGS-14 was pictured.
  • scotchw, on 07/03/2009, -0/+11I'm frankly no one else has mentioned this;

    The human brain is an incredibly complex organ. I have read on multiple occasions that one of the brain's most important features may well be the ability to filter, and reject, MOST of what we see/hear/smell/taste/touch. Because the bandwidth of information coming in all the time is so amazing, if it's not filtered, you would be totally overwhelmed.

    I know I've seen studies about patients who have disabilities related to filtering, and they are basically incapable of functioning in everyday situations.
  • shillabus, on 07/03/2009, -0/+10Some dance to remember, some dance to forget...
  • mattwalton56, on 07/03/2009, -0/+10Buy what?
  • MoneyShot, on 07/03/2009, -0/+10"One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory." - Rita Mae Brown.
  • loringalta, on 07/03/2009, -2/+11This is Digg: curing cancer and eradicating blindness since 2004.
  • LeroyJenkems, on 07/03/2009, -0/+9*****, i cant unsee it now after you reminded me of it
  • andrewlotta, on 07/03/2009, -1/+10not cool dude, totally not cool
  • ConfirmedCynic, on 07/03/2009, -0/+9Excellent memory is definitely a two-edged sword. Would you like to relive your painful memories over and over again, often involuntarily, the way I do? Unable to forget every stupid little social faux pas?

    The internet is a blessed distraction from having to remember, for me.

    I did extremely well in university, graduated number one in my class, but it hasn't made me happy.

    Also, while helpful, you need more than memory to have a rounded intelligence.
  • Charlie1er, on 07/03/2009, -0/+8it will
  • mrjit, on 07/03/2009, -0/+8I read that as "edibly etched".. Jesus what has the internet done to me.
  • shandromand, on 07/03/2009, -0/+7But on the plus side, you'd definitely remember how to spell...
  • Kyan, on 07/03/2009, -0/+7Ifyourunoutofspacethenjuststarttypinglikethis.
  • shandromand, on 07/03/2009, -0/+7There's a potential HIV vaccine nearly ready for human trials. Stop bitching.
  • KMye, on 07/03/2009, -1/+8Genuinely sorry to break it to you, Ipso, and I genuinely hope your identity isn't too wrapped up in this "gift" of yours, but that pretty much sounds like being a bit OCD, having a good but not abnormal memory, and as far as the decisions/regret (whether it's about major or trivial *****), being human...
  • zachstanley, on 07/03/2009, -0/+6No one's saying we can't multitask, you know.
  • jessenoob, on 07/03/2009, -0/+6http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp
  • gutistg, on 07/03/2009, -1/+7I'd take it in a heartbeat, unforeseeable repercussions be damned.
  • Ajjah, on 07/03/2009, -0/+5If this ability was not enabled by Evolution, but it is present, it leads me to believe that there is a reason it is not turned on.
  • RadiatedAnt, on 07/03/2009, -1/+6Did adam sandler just get fat?
  • Jough, on 07/03/2009, -0/+5Unfortunately, as much as I try, I can't get the image of tubgirl out of my mind. And, I'm not even taking the drug... :(
  • Animan351, on 07/03/2009, -0/+5but but but, I want it... :(
  • Tanktunker, on 07/03/2009, -1/+6Well if it's a "cure" and not a cure, then they probably shouldn't approve it because it "works" as opposed to works.
  • maz2331, on 07/03/2009, -1/+6But they do have a drug to make you hard as a rock on demand.
  • slashdotordigg, on 07/03/2009, -0/+5As you mentioned it, 5 year old memory just came back. damn you!!
  • Xplorer, on 07/03/2009, -0/+5And after 10 years of it being all over the net....
  • sprotacular, on 07/03/2009, -1/+6You would go insane in about 5 minutes.
  • samard2002, on 07/03/2009, -0/+4I think part of the human experience is forming an idea of your memories -- of taking in sensations and sights and then reprocessing them from our own perspective. Remembering everything in a purely literal sense is functional, but completely debases what it means to be a contextual being.
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