050. Amy Milton: Erasing Memories for Good

How from a very early age, she was fascinated with the gap between what people intended to do and what they ended up doing, growing up with parents who were smokers.

Editing memories, and how new information can be incorporated and the memories themselves disrupted.

Studying addiction and the connection between addiction and memory, and how disrupting certain memories can prevent relapse.

Different types of memories — implicit memories and explicit memories, episodic memories, emotional memories, habits.

What does the smell of baking bread have to do with memory's role in addiction?

What can we do to fight addiction?

The role of memories in phobias and PTSD.

Exposure therapy and how it can get better with memory modification.

The use of psychedelics in therapy and in addiction, and how understanding the memory component of that can help us understand, potentially, psychedelics better.

Virtual reality exposure.

And the ethical considerations of modifying someone's memory, whether it be through overuse, abuse, or a tyranny where individual rights are not a consideration.