But you Can unsee It

About the author

I wrote this while I was in Buenos Aires on personal time after teaching a class as a Fulbright Specialist. So, rather than yet another picture of me like most other pages here, here’s the logo of that award.

But you Can unsee It by Brendan ZaChary AllIson

“I can’t unsee that.”

“Sure you can. With my help. For a fee.”

“How? Kill me?”

“No. I mean, yes, that would work, but then you couldn’t pay me.”

“Remove part of my brain?”

“That would also work, but then you wouldn’t pay me.”

“You figure out where the memory is stored and then shut it down somehow?”

“That’s the same as removing part of the brain. Memories are distributed and overlapping. They’re stored in the same places. It’s more about identifying the visual processes associated with a specific memory and designating them as the top priority for being overwritten by new memories.”

“Sorta like editing a hard drive registry?”

“Sorta. So what did you want to unsee?”

“Your BCI-fi stories. All of them.”

“Um. OK. Not a fan. But you trust me to edit your brain for 3000 bucks?”

“It seems like you know about brains, but that’s your only writing talent. That’s why you paid me 20 grand to publicize your webisodes. I had to read such bad BCI-fi that I’ll pay to unsee it.”

“That’s just your opinion. Other people might feel differently.”

“No, you’re somehow the first person in IMDB history to have a negative rating on their 1-10 scale.”

“Well then I’ll pay you another 20K if you can insert ads for my unseeing service to my webisodes. Just agree here in writing. And then I’ll wipe your memory of everything I wrote for free. And I’ll even free your memory of this conversation as a bonus.”

“Deal.”

Author Commentary

This is another example of neurotechnology for memory revision. I wrote “Better Recollections” a while back and its sequel, “BeCalmIng,” yesterday.

Realism

The two short-shorts I mentioned under “Author Commentary”” have other comments on the realism of rewriting memories. This idea is less realistic than those two because it relies in identifying specific memories to remove, rather than just editing memories that cause emotional pain.

Hope

I hope my writing isn’t so bad that people want to pay to erase any memory of them. Worse, unlike the protagonist here (aka me), I can’t charge people to remove memories.

Edit History

I wrote this in November 2024.

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