The newest season of Severance was released on January 17, 2025, on Apple TV+. So far, this show, a sci-fi drama, has had 2 seasons made since 2022. It focuses on employees at Lumon Industries, a company that uses a certain surgical procedure to keep personal and professional memories separate.
Many people wonder whether a scenario akin to Severance, in which memories are divided between one's personal and professional lives, might actually come true as one enters a techno-capitalist future.
Dr. Bing is a neurologist at Mayo Clinic. He recently stated in an Instagram reel that:
"As a neurologist, I find Severance fascinating because it raises thought provoking questions about memory, identity and how our brain shapes who we are and if you've never seen it, the show takes place in a fictional world where workers undergo a surgical procedure that splits their memories into two separate streams, one for work and one for their personal lives
He added,
"And while this all science fiction, it touches on real neurological concepts of memory and consciousness and you see memory isn't just about storing information, it's deeply tied to our sense of self and we all have different types of memories, like episodic and semantic for example, which rely on different brain regions including hippocampus and prefrontal cortex and in Severance, separating work and personal memories raises the question that if you don't remember who you are outside of work, do you even have a complete identity? And this idea resonates with real neurological conditions
"For example, dissociative amnesia can cause someone to lose access to specific memories often due to trauma and similarly, brain injuries affecting the hippocampus can impair the ability for someone to form new memories which traps someone in the present, much like the "Innies" in Severance.
"On the other hand, Alzheimer's disease shows how memory loss can fundamentally change someone's personality and severing ties to the past and you've been reshaping someone's behaviour and relationships.
"And ethically, the show brings up questions about autonomy and control. If a person consents to the Severance procedure in the show, does their work self have the right to undo it later?
"The work self essentially becomes a trapped entity, unable to make decisions for its own freedom, and this ties into the real world ethical debates about cognitive manipulation, such as deep brain stimulation, which is commonly used to treat conditions like Parkinsons or depression or epilepsy.
"While I'm seeing these devices transform lives, it also highlights the delicate balance between using technology to help people and the potential for misuse and altering behaviour or personality.
"And as compelling as the show is, it's worth noting that severing memories in this way wouldn't be possible without our current understanding of the brain. Our memories are distributed across networks of neurons and you can't simply just turn off one part of your life without affecting others. Anyways, I really like the show, and if you watch it, let me know what you think of it in the comments below."
"severing memories in this way wouldn't be possible with our current understanding of the brain."
What is Severance all about and could it become a reality?
Severance is a television drama that has been gaining popularity lately. It involves employees undergoing a treatment that divides their memory into two parts - one for work and one for their personal life.
As a result of this procedure, each employee is assigned two unique identities: "outie" for life outside work and "innie" for life while at work. Thus, when at work, the employees have no recollection of their lives outside work.
This has raised among its viewers the question of whether or not such a situation could be possible in real life anytime soon. As a response, Dr. Steve Ramirez, a neuroscientist at Boston University, has shared his views.
Dr. Ramirez, an expert in memory storage and retrieval, explores how memories are formed, retained, and transformed and how they can be artificially implanted in those with mental health disorders. His study focuses on how memories might be difficult to retrieve, particularly those from early infancy.
This condition is known as "infantile amnesia." This describes how early experiences of human beings continue to influence who they are and how they behave even though they might be unable to recall them consciously.
In regard to Severance becoming a reality and connecting it to retrieved memories that were presumed to be lost to infantile amnesia, Ramirez told BU Today:
"That, to me, says there's at least two versions of ourselves in existence within the same brain - one to which we have direct conscious access and one to which we do not.
"So for severance to happen in real life, you’re taking that idea, but rather than starting with infantile amnesia and going to adulthood, it’s just happening during two different parts of the day. Same idea, just different timing.
"I was actually thinking the other day about how you might design an experiment to get this kind of state-dependent recall of entire experiences. I think, in theory, it should be possible."
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This implies that there are two different versions of ourselves in the brain. He clarifies that "Severance" might be effective in real life. This is done by dividing memories, not just from infancy to maturity, but also between different periods of the day.
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