We Can Remember It for You Wholesale

In “Total Recall”, a man named Douglas Quaid discovers that his entire life has been a fabricated memory. But what if this was actually possible? AI technology is still in its early stages, but it’s not hard to imagine a future where we can upload our memories to a computer and share them with others.

The 1990 movie “Total Recall” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger is a science fiction classic. In it, a man named Douglas Quaid discovers that his entire life has been a fabricated memory. But what if this was actually possible? AI technology is still in its early stages, but it’s not hard to imagine a future where we can upload our memories to a computer and share them with others.

The idea of uploading memories to a computer is not new. In the 1968 novel “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”, author Philip K. Dick explores the idea of memory implants. The book was later adapted into the movie “Total Recall”. In the movie, Quaid discovers that his memories of being a construction worker are fake. He has actually been implanted with the memories of a secret agent.

Of course, in the year 2022, memory implants are still science fiction, but the technology to create them is becoming increasingly sophisticated. In 2017, researchers at MIT created a system that can “read” memories from the brains of rats. The system can then play back the memories to the rats. The rats then behave as if they are reliving the memories. The technology is still in its early stages, but it is not hard to imagine a future where we can upload our memories to a computer. We could then share our memories with others, or even download the memories of others. We could experience the memories of other people, or of historical figures. We could relive our own memories, or create new ones.