Consciousness Switch?

Today’s post will be based THIS article, so if you would like to know a bit more about what I will be talking about, I think you’d find it interesting to read it.

The mind is a very complex place, making the time taken to treat coma patients an eternity. This treatment can also be very risky, meaning that loved ones of the person usually have to decide what should happen.  However, there has been no treatment that promises to bring somebody out of a coma in seconds. Until now.

Scientists claim to have found what they call an ‘on-off’ switch that could bring people in and out of consciousness, by simply using high-frequency electrical impulses to stimulate the region. So far, this has only been a clinical trial, which are not to be relied on. Nevertheless, if this study is based on truth, I look forward to seeing the ‘coma’ being a thing of the past, something that is not to be considered as a curse but just a phase.

I sincerely hope that this is the case, as it could save so many so much trouble and pain. Not to mention all of the resources it would save the NHS, allowing more time to treat other, more deadly diseases.

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than
society gathers wisdom.” – Isaac Asimov

Fingolimod - The Cure To Our Nightmares

Yesterday I was reading an article in the Summer 2014 issue of the BBC Focus magazine. To say the least fingolimod (currently approved for treating multiple sclerosis) made me curious as to the wonders that could be done with humanity.

Fingolimod ‘may have the ability to lessen the effect of adverse or traumatic memories.’ It has been tested on mice so far, proving to be successful on them. They no longer showed the typical ‘freezing’  behaviour that happens when mice are frightened or anxious. 

In my opinion, all of our experiences make us who we are as people. If fingolimod could be used as a cure for our traumatic memories in the future, would that change the people we become, our moral views, or the way we embrace the rest of our lives? Yes, I think so. Bitter memories can breed evil, hope and sadness. With these feelings subdued, the mere definition of humanity could change. Bitterness would come to an end, but would regret, change and opinions also have the same fate.

The erasing of our worst memories would make us unemotional people, maybe unsusceptible to horror because we would no longer know the meaning of it. As extreme as it may sound, I think that the use of fingolimod would result in a huge hole in the heart of humanity. This is not something that we can afford, with so many already suffering due to lack of emotion, in places like Palestine and Gaza.

We will simply have to learn to deal with these poor memories, growing from them, rather than shrinking as good people.

‘The best doctor gives the least medicine.’ – Benjamin Franklin