I have no idea, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s a mainstream position.
My thinking is that long-term memory requires long-term preservation of information, and evolution “prefers” to repurpose things rather than starting from scratch. And what do you know, there’s this robust and effective infrastructure for storing and replicating information just sitting there in the middle of each neuron!
The main problem is writing new information. But apparently, there’s a protein evolved from a retrotransposon (those things which viruses use to insert their own RNA into their host’s DNA) which is important to long term memory!
And I’ve since learned of an experiment with snails which also suggests this possibility. Based on that article, it looks like this is maybe a relatively new line of thinking.
It’s good news for cryonics if this is the primary way long term memories are stored, since we “freeze” sperm and eggs all the time, and they still work.
I find this rather exciting—and clearly the cryonics implications are positive. But beyond that, and yes, this is really scifi down the road thinking here, the implications for education/learning and treatment of things like PTSD seems huge. Assuming we can figure out how to control these. Of course I’m ignoring some of the real down sides like manipulation of memory for bad reasons or an Orwellean application. I am not sure those types of risks at that large in most open societies.
I have no idea, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s a mainstream position.
My thinking is that long-term memory requires long-term preservation of information, and evolution “prefers” to repurpose things rather than starting from scratch. And what do you know, there’s this robust and effective infrastructure for storing and replicating information just sitting there in the middle of each neuron!
The main problem is writing new information. But apparently, there’s a protein evolved from a retrotransposon (those things which viruses use to insert their own RNA into their host’s DNA) which is important to long term memory!
And I’ve since learned of an experiment with snails which also suggests this possibility. Based on that article, it looks like this is maybe a relatively new line of thinking.
It’s good news for cryonics if this is the primary way long term memories are stored, since we “freeze” sperm and eggs all the time, and they still work.
I find this rather exciting—and clearly the cryonics implications are positive. But beyond that, and yes, this is really scifi down the road thinking here, the implications for education/learning and treatment of things like PTSD seems huge. Assuming we can figure out how to control these. Of course I’m ignoring some of the real down sides like manipulation of memory for bad reasons or an Orwellean application. I am not sure those types of risks at that large in most open societies.