I know it's hardly original before anyone points it out, but I'm trying to get my head around the results of such a procedure, and how it would manifest itself. If someone, unbeknown to them, was implanted with the false memory of a murder they supposedly committed, would they not remember a time before this implant, when they could remember not having committed the murder? In other words, would their thought process be, 'Why am I suddenly plagued by the memories of committing a murder?' ? Given that this person is fully aware of the technique, and is heavily involved in it, would it be immediately obvious to them they'd been implanted with these memories?
It would depend on a lot of things, and most I think would be your own taste. Will there be a "remembering before" and "remembering after"? Because inserting a memory could probably mess up what's already there. Maybe the memory bleeds into other memories so that the brain now "sees" it all with that memory as a "fixed point" (if that makes sense.) Or is it just placing that scene into the mind as if editing a movie? It could also be the feeling of that they've been in denial. There is something wrong with the memory, but it's so strong that it has to be true, right? Denial or going insane. Both probably would/could happen to someone in their position. Though since they are well aware of the procedure I think I would go for the character "knowing" it's an implant... or is it? It surly has to be... but at the same time... the memory and the knowledge of implants is about as strong as each other. So sometimes the character can convince themselves that it's just an implant, but sometimes it's hard because they remember clearly holding the knife (or whatever). They scrubbed out the blood of their clothes! It's so real, it can't just be all made up, can it?
Thanks, @Lemie - some great ways of looking at it there. I like the last one (it's also the one that kept pushing its way to the forefront of my mind too). I think him knowing will help with the whole 'clearing his name' journey.
Have you done a lot of research into this already? Because this is actually something people have done already in cognitive psychology. Not exactly remembering committing murder, but getting people to remember things like getting lost in the mall as a child and meeting Bugs Bunny on a visit to Disney Land, stuff like that. The process is basically just priming people with stimuli, like doctored photos, and then asking about the events that were supposed to have happened.
I admit I've done none, unless watching films like Total Recall and Minority Report count. But I'd like to stay away from the psychology aspects, and keep it more out and out sci-fi / futuristic where the memories are hard wired in place.
You should look into the case of Paul Ingram. A man who apparently confessed to some pretty heinous crimes that he didn't actually do and then refused to believe he didn't do them.
I doubt that this will fit, but just in case: what if he's somehow convinced that he was implanted with false memories of NOT committing the murder? So that his knowledge of the technique is turned against him.
That's a head-scratcher. I'm not so much after plot ideas as I now have something in place to work with. I was more looking for how someone who'd had false memories implanted would process it all, and I think I've settled on the notion that they would eventually begin to suspect the memories had indeed been implanted.
