The possibility is nearing that you can take a pill and remove some memories.  (This evening I opened a nice bottle of Yangarra Old Vine Grenache 2005 and removed some memories but that doesn’t count because they will come back tomorrow.)

Media treatment of these advances always focuses on enabling us to erase bad memories.  But its not so obvious that bad memories are the ones you want to lose.  Bad memories often serve an important purpose.  They record a lesson learned.  It may be a lesson about what not to do (memories of car accidents after opening a nice bottle of…) It may be a lesson about people not to trust (memories of abuse.)

On the other hand, many good memories just get in the way.  I remember vividly the film Leolo.  But because of that memory I will never get to enjoy that film again.  Likewise I remember the first time I heard Chick Corea’s Children’s Song #6, how to juggle, the end of The Naked and the Dead and the smell of my wife. These are all novelties that are no longer available to me, unless I could erase some good memories.

The good/bad distinction is less important than the following distinction.  Is the memory affecting my decisions or not?  Whether the memory is good or bad, I want to keep it if it encodes an important lesson helping me continue to make good decisions and avoid bad ones.  And I want to erase it if its function is pure consumption.  The bad memories I want to lose forever, the good memories I want to repeat.