Reloading a Human Memory: A New Ethical Question for Artificial Intelligence Technology

One day a man, who had lost much of his long-term episodic memory, consulted the professor to ask him if there was any way he could help him regain the lost memories. During the previous year, this amnestic man had suffered a stroke in his right cerebral hemisphere. Being righthanded and left-hemisphere specialized for language, he was still able to speak, to read and write: and to understand what was said to him. Besides the usual difficulty in recalling proper names, his main problem involved large gaps in his memory for events that he participated in before the stroke, although he could remember events that occurred after the stroke. For example, many years before his stroke, he had received a high award for an exceptional achievement.