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Over the past few classes, we have been discussing the human memory. We watched a movie called Memento, in which a film technique knows as hapax was used. In this technique, the movie opens up with a scene that we would later realize was the end of the plot. The movie ends with the beginning of the plot line. The scenes of the movie filmed in color appear in the movie backwards. There are also black and white scenes in the movie that appear in chronological order. The differences among plot order and color contrast makes it difficult to realize the hapax until the very last scene of the movie. At the end, we discover that the main character, Leonard, actually is not as innocent as we originally thought. Even though it was difficult to determine the sequence of events of the story line, I think it is fair to say that most viewers would think that Leonard was an innocent victim to a brain injury that distorted his memory.

When discussing the movie in class, it was pointed out that the directors of the movie made is obvious in the first scene that it was supposed to be backyards and the end of the plot when the bullet from the gun and the blood moved in reverse. Although the story was somewhat hard to follow because of the hapax, I think the directors gave obvious clues such as the difference in color and the Sammy Jenkins scenes that hinted that Leonard was not innocent. It began to make me think that sometimes, the human memory of events or stories can be lost or missed because of our emotional connection to a person involved. We learned relatively early that Leonard lost his wife because she was raped and then murdered in their house. Immediately, we feel sympathy for him and are invested in the revenge that he is seeking. Even later in the movie when we see that Leonard hits Vanessa, I never assumed that he was a bad person or might be causing himself some of this harm. I think the viewer’s emotional attachment to Leonard gives important insight to our human memory; emotions and feelings are just as if not more powerful than observing actions or discovering fact. Although Leonard would forget everything since the accident, he always woke up feeling the urge to get revenge. He also remembers the feeling of losing his wife. These feelings overpowered his self-discovery of what really happened that night, causing him to seek revenge even after he murdered the rapist years previous. Similarly, our feeling of pity that we originally felt for Leonard prevents the viewers from picking up on all of the clues given about the real Leonard.

I think our emotions interfere with our interpretation of a bunch of other books that we have read in this class, specifically the Buried Giant. Throughout the whole book, we are presented with Axl and Beatrice, whom we observe to be truly in love. Although they are not treated well by the community, Axl is always looking out for Beatrice whom he called his “princess”. Both Axl and Beatrice have problems with their memories. At the end of the book, we discover that Beatrice had an affair so their love was not as true than we originally were lead to believe. It makes me wonder if there were any clues throughout the book that would have given hints to this affair. I think that our first memory of the feeling of love and admiration could have distorted our memory or recognition of other details that would have questioned their relationship.

After watching the movie Memento and our class discussion following it, I realized how uncomfortable the movie made me and the connection to Buried Giant. Throughout the whole movie I really had no idea what was going on, what was going to happen next, or the true story line. As the movie was told starting from the end then going to the middle and so on, I was left feeling like my memory and thought process was very affected. It made me feel uncomfortable because my brain could not really process what was going on. It really made me feel like I was Lenny and lacked the ability to form memories or know what was going on. The director did a great job of making you feel everything that Lenny felt. In thinking about this I realized what Axel and Beatrice are going through in Buried Giant. They both are very aware of their memory loss and it makes them very uneasy. A huge part of their life is missing especially their son, who they both know that they had one point in time. Their feelings of missing their son is similar to Lenny’s feelings about his wife. All “characters” feel lost and a need to bring back the missing pieces of their life. They all must work through a loss of memory and almost starting their lives over everyday. Throughout Memento, I questioned why Lenny even wanted to live in the first place. There was such an emptiness inside of him that I feel is similar to Axel and Beatrice that made me think what type of life is that to live? All characters are not sure who they can trust and who they cannot trust. Lenny feels distant from the world because no one understands his condition or experiences it with him which makes him live a lonely isolated life. Axel and Beatrice are different and isolated because they are the only ones in their village who are uncomfortable with their memory loss and who see answers.

This also brought me to the idea of robots. Can they relate to Lenny Beatrice and Axel in that they are empty and missing something such as emotion and feeling. While robots can remember a lot, they are incapable of feeling, but because they have memory, they technically know that they cannot feel. To me, this is not a life worth much which makes me wonder if creating robots is ethical at all.

While searching for a topic to cover for the group presentation, my group members and I stumbled upon the emerging technology of Brain to Brain Interface. BTBI connects the brains of two organisms, and allows for the transmission of signals from one (the sender) to the other (the recipient). BTBI involves either invasive or noninvasive operations. The use of BTBI calls into question an array of ethical issues. Some of which include Neural Privacy, Enhancement, and Agency and Identity.

Neural Privacy is in jeopardy when BTBI is used because the brain has no ability to refuse the impulse that it receives, and there have been very few measures taken to protect neural data. Without protection of neural data, the hacking of neural impulses could become possible in the future. Potentially the most frightening threat pertaining to neural privacy is the possibility of silent communication. Imagine if two people could communicate without any trace of interaction (text or verbal). The possibilities of silent communication could enhance the ability for criminals to execute missions more efficiently.

Enhancement through the use of BTBI refers to the ability to enhance learning and skill acquisition; a sure way to widening the inequality gap. The use of at-home BTBI is very costly, and will therefore only be available to those who can afford it. using such technology to enhance learning skills and decrease sill acquisition time could lead to the enhancement of wealth accumulation for the rich, and the resulting widening gap of inequality.

lastly, this technology brings about the ethical issue of agency and identity. Assuming one’s identity is defined by their neurophysiology, their sense of identity may be skewed if they are connected to another brain. If one is connected to another’s brain, they may adopt a communal sense of being rather than an individualistic sense of being.

With the advancements that have been made in the use of BTBI comes great ethical issues that must be considered. Without the approbate introspection into these ethical issues, the further development of BTBI could be detrimental to its users.

In class on Tuesday, Professor Perrone presented a scenario in which an individual must create a physical reminder for himself to make sure that he does his homework. The individual suffers from short term memory loss, so he will not remember if he has homework to turn in or not. Additionally, he does not have a pen or paper to make note of his homework, he only has a bucket and some water. The class was then opened to discussion to think of ways that the individual could use the bucket and water to remind himself that he has homework. Professor Perrone suggested that the individual could draw a line on the inside of the bucket, and he could fill the bucket with water above the line if he had homework, and fill it below the line if he did not have homework. But what if the bucket had a hole in the bottom that caused the water to leak out of the bucket? He would have no idea whether or not he has homework, and his bucket technique would fail him.

This scenario, centered around memory, caused me to think about an episode of Black Mirror that I watched. The episode is titled “The Entire History of You”, and nearly all of the characters in the show have a chip implanted in their heads that enable them to record and replay every single memory from their entire lives. As enticing as this sounds, the chip can become harmful in relationships with others, whether they be amicable or sexual.

In today’s times, a person’s memory is something that they can hold onto and can never be taken from them. Additionally, people have selective memories; they grasp onto their happiest memories, while also try to block out the worst memories from their pasts. Going back to the original scenario presented in class, if the individual had a memory chip implanted in himself, then he would be able to go back and watch what happened in class and see whether or not he was assigned homework. Although this would be helpful for him in this situation, the memory chip would also enable him to review, replay, and relive every single bad memory that he has from his past. All the times his parents yelled at him, all the times he was bullied at school, and all the times he failed athletically or academically. I believe that memories are meant to be cherished, not relived or replayed. I think that people should try to live their lives in the present because we cannot change the past, we can only prepare for the future.

In class on Thursday, we discussed the idea that companies may start selling people’s private browsing history to advertisers and other companies, and if that would be morally wrong. Internet service providers are what people have to go through to obtain Internet access. Personally, I think that the ISP should give people the choice of opting out or very blatantly notify their costumers that their searches are being shared.

I did a quick Google search and learned a few days ago the senate voted to remove what is called the broadband privacy rules. These rules require the ISP to require their user’s consent before sharing the user’s private browsing data. Now we are just waiting to hear what the House and President decide. Depending on the outcome, the ISP may be able to share their user’s search history without obtain their users consent.

We also spent a lot of time discussing our poster projects. I am looking forward to working with my classmates and hearing their perspectives on the topic we chose. Our plan at the moment is to look at self-driving cars, the moral dilemmas, how they will reduce work, and how autonomous cars relate to memory. With the addition of self-driving cars, driving jobs, such as truck drivers, uber drivers, and pizza delivery drivers will loose their jobs.