Eternal Sunshine

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Eternal Sunshine
2013 Spring I Product Innovation Class
Movie Presentation I Technology and Society
of the Spotless Mind
You can erase someone from your mind. Getting
them out of your heart is another story.
Michel Gondry
Prepared by Yena, Fangzhou and Leny
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Table of Contents

• Brief Introduction about the Movie
• The Technology Function and Design
• Possible Obstacles to Implementation
• Consequences to the Society
• Necessary Institutional Mechanism
• Personal Responses to the Technology
• Availability in the Future

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1. Brief Introduction about the Movie

• The Plot
• A man, Joel Barish, heartbroken that his
  girlfriend Clementine underwent a procedure to
  erase him from her memory, decides to do the
  same. However, as he watches his memories of her
  fade away, he realizes that he still loves her,
  and may be too late to correct his mistake.

• What Technology is Used?
• - A technology that erases a persons memory
  selectivelyespecially memories related to love
  lifefor people suffering from breakups or
  heartbreaks.
• - In the movie, a company called LACUNA Inc.
  performs it with a memory-erasing machine.

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2. The Technology Function and Desgin

• Function Erases human memory selectively
• A person gathers every evidence (photo, diary,
  letters, objects) related to another person, and
  with that evidence the technicians of LACUNA Inc.
  creates a map of that person in the brain and
  erases memory (emotional core).

• Design (LACUNA Inc.)

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3. Possible Obstacles to Implementation

• Technological Issues
• - It may be impossible to develop the technology.
• - Possibility of medical mistakes (brain damage)
• - Difficulty of securing a supply of people to be
  safely experimented on during the development
  phase (related with ethical issues.)
• Ethical Issues
• There may be people refusing the technology to be
  adopted.

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4. Possible Consequences in the Society

• Beneficial Effects
• Helping people relieved from emotional pain who
  have been dumped by their lovers, or have lost
  their lover to death.
• Psychological treatment for people suffering from
  trauma (sexual harassment, family violence,
  earthquake )

• Harmful Effects
• - There are ethical issues, whether it is a right
  thing to do.
• - People will get confused because memories
  related relationships are erased from only one
  side(not reciprocal)
• - Sometimes, like in the movie, people realize
  they actually do not want to erase the memory for
  real(during the surgery)
• - There are possibilities of misuse with bad
  intentions.

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5. Necessary Institutional Mechanisms

• Laws or Government Regulations
• Government should make sure that peoples memory
  is not erased without the both sides agreement.
• They should also be sure to prevent possible
  misuse of the technology with other bad purposes.
• Laws related to medical surgery/mistakes should
  be very specifically designed.

• Norms or Culture
• The two people, and the other people related to
  the relationship should all agree to the
  procedure.

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6. Availability in the Future

• Available / Not Available
• When?
• Within the next 50 years
• How?
• When the technology is developed and all other
  social agreements and laws are perfected.