Scientists begin tinkering on 'deleting' your unwanted memories

It might seem like fantasy, but scientists have found a way to delete bad memories from your head - forever. The news is coming from a new documentary being shown in the US this week called "Memory Hackers".

Memory Hackers is a NOVA documentary from PBS, which looks into the cutting edge research being done on the nature of memory, and how it might be used for the benefit of mankind. The filmmakers said: "For much of human history, memory has been seen as a tape recorder that faithfully registers information and replays it intact".

They continue: "But now, researchers are discovering that memory is far more malleable, always being written and rewritten, not just by us but by others. We are discovering the precise mechanisms that can explain and even control our memories".

One of the benefits of this new technology is a subject in the documentary, 12-year-old Jake Hausler. Hausler remembers nearly every single detail of his life since he was 8, and is the youngest person to be diagnosed with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory. This makes it very hard for him to tell the different between something trivial, or important from his past.

André Fenton, a prominent neuroscientist who is working on a way to erase painful memories, explains: "Forgetting is probably one of the most important things that brains will do. We understand only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to human memory".

There are of course ways this technology could be abused, such as implanting memories into people - which could be disastrous. What do you think of this technology? Do you think we should be able to 'forget' something if we really want to?