Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 14:1 (Spring 2023)
Article: Deleting Trauma: A Christian Response To Memory-Editing Technologies And The Crisis In Human Identity Formation
Author: Micah Chung

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Deleting Trauma: A Christian Response To Memory-Editing Technologies And The Crisis In Human Identity Formation

Micah E. Chung

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Abstract: Given the rise of “memory-modifying technologies” (MMTs) that promise to dampen, erase, and even replace unwanted memories, I explore in this paper a Christian response to MMTs given the crisis they bring to human identity formation. I first trace a history of memory models to answer the question, “What is memory?” informed by philosophy (Aristotle’s “Wax Seal” and Augustine’s “Vast Storehouse”), psychology (the “Information-Processor” model), and neuroscience (the “Spider Web” model). I then take Miroslav Volf’s The End of Memory as a Christian theological guideline to glean insights to develop a Christian response to MMTs, specifically those targeting memory erasure. I employ these insights to draw out implications for MMTs regarding personal and communal formation from a Christian perspective, centering the discussion on the Christian virtues of mercy, justice, godliness, and love.

Key Words: bioethics, corporate memory, identity, memory, memory-modification, regulative memories, technology, theology, virtue

In the 1997 film, Men in Black, government agents use gadgets called “neuralizers” to erase and edit witnesses’ memories.1 Though current neuroscience has yet to come close to such science fiction, the field of memory editing has advanced rapidly over the last two decades, yielding frighteningly provocative results that have given rise to “memory-modifying technologies” (MMTs).2 MMTs hold promise “to dampen (via pharmacologicals), disassociate (via electro-convulsive therapy), erase (via deep brain stimulation), and replace (via false memory creation) unsavory episodic memories [and] are no longer the subject of science fiction. They

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have already arrived.”3 Besides counseling methods that seek to employ the brain’s inbuilt self-editing mechanisms,4 current MMTs fit into four categories: (1) Optogenetics, which uses lasers on the brain;5 (2) epigenetics, which directly manipulates brain molecules and proteins;6 (3) false memory therapy (FMT), which plants false memories to alter behavior;7 and (4) pharmacological treatments, wh...