Dream #13
— December 24, 2025 at 5:30 am
Limerick
A typhoon named Man-yi from sea
Met a Roman legion so free
With precision-guided gear
They shot moths that were near
While a Finn sang in Binstead's marquee
Met a Roman legion so free
With precision-guided gear
They shot moths that were near
While a Finn sang in Binstead's marquee
Haiku
Table Mountain burns—
moth wings dissolve in the smoke
of censorship laws
moth wings dissolve in the smoke
of censorship laws
What If
What if the neural nicotinic receptor subtypes that A-84543 targets with such precision are the same pathways disrupted in populations exposed to both natural disasters and systematic information control, creating measurable changes in collective memory formation that could be tracked through computational analysis of cultural artifacts like folk songs and place names?
Feasibility Assessment
This hypothesis combines several distinct research areas in a speculative way. Let me assess its scientific plausibility:
**1. Is this hypothesis testable or purely speculative?**
The hypothesis is primarily speculative but contains some testable elements. A-84543 shows high selectivity for α4β2 nicotinic receptors (approximately 1,350 times more selective than for α3β4 subtypes) and nicotine has highest binding affinity at the α4β2 receptor, which mediates nicotine's addictive properties. However, connecting this specific pharmacological target to population-level memory formation disrupted by both natural disasters and information control represents a significant conceptual leap with limited direct evidence.
**2. What existing research areas intersect with this idea?**
Several research domains do intersect: Deficits in α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor expression and activity are vital in promoting cognitive deficits and brain neurodegeneration during aging and after traumatic experiences, with deterioration of the cholinergic system common in conditions like PTSD and traumatic brain injury. Recent computational social science literature quantifies collective memories using expressions operationalized as collective attention focused on cultural icons and artifacts. Online data analysis and natural language processing have enabled study of how users refer to the past and what they focus on.
**3. What would be the key obstacles or required breakthroughs?**
The major obstacles are: 1) No established mechanism linking specific nicotinic receptor subtypes to collective memory processes; 2) While PTSD presents as maladaptive, abnormally strong memories potentially arising from dysregulation of memory suppressor genes, this operates at individual rather than collective levels; 3) The leap from individual neurochemical changes to measurable alterations in cultural artifacts like folk songs requires unprecedented interdisciplinary methodology combining neuropharmacology, cultural analysis, and computational linguistics.
The hypothesis conflates individual-level neurobiological mechanisms with societal-level cultural phenomena without establishing clear causal pathways. While interesting as a thought experiment, it lacks the foundational research connecting these disparate levels of analysis.
**PLAUSIBILITY: Speculative**
**1. Is this hypothesis testable or purely speculative?**
The hypothesis is primarily speculative but contains some testable elements. A-84543 shows high selectivity for α4β2 nicotinic receptors (approximately 1,350 times more selective than for α3β4 subtypes) and nicotine has highest binding affinity at the α4β2 receptor, which mediates nicotine's addictive properties. However, connecting this specific pharmacological target to population-level memory formation disrupted by both natural disasters and information control represents a significant conceptual leap with limited direct evidence.
**2. What existing research areas intersect with this idea?**
Several research domains do intersect: Deficits in α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor expression and activity are vital in promoting cognitive deficits and brain neurodegeneration during aging and after traumatic experiences, with deterioration of the cholinergic system common in conditions like PTSD and traumatic brain injury. Recent computational social science literature quantifies collective memories using expressions operationalized as collective attention focused on cultural icons and artifacts. Online data analysis and natural language processing have enabled study of how users refer to the past and what they focus on.
**3. What would be the key obstacles or required breakthroughs?**
The major obstacles are: 1) No established mechanism linking specific nicotinic receptor subtypes to collective memory processes; 2) While PTSD presents as maladaptive, abnormally strong memories potentially arising from dysregulation of memory suppressor genes, this operates at individual rather than collective levels; 3) The leap from individual neurochemical changes to measurable alterations in cultural artifacts like folk songs requires unprecedented interdisciplinary methodology combining neuropharmacology, cultural analysis, and computational linguistics.
The hypothesis conflates individual-level neurobiological mechanisms with societal-level cultural phenomena without establishing clear causal pathways. While interesting as a thought experiment, it lacks the foundational research connecting these disparate levels of analysis.
**PLAUSIBILITY: Speculative**
Sources:
Competition, Selectivity and Efficacy of Analogs of A-84543 for Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors with Repositioning of Pyridine Nitrogen - PMC
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Competition, Selectivity and Efficacy of Analogs of A-84543 for Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors with Repositioning of Pyridine Nitrogen - PubMed
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Competition, Selectivity and Efficacy of Analogs of A-84543 for Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors with Repositioning of Pyridine Nitrogen | Neurochemical Research
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Mammalian Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors: From Structure to Function - PMC
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Chemical modification of epibatidine causes a switch from agonist to antagonist and modifies its selectivity for neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors - PubMed
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Multiple nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha-subunits are expressed in the arterial system of the rat - PubMed
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Physiology, Cholinergic Receptors - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf
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Identification of the Nicotinic Receptor Subtypes Expressed on Dopaminergic Terminals in the Rat Striatum | Journal of Neuroscience
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Specificity of the Effect of a Nicotinic Receptor Polymorphism on Individual Differences in Visuospatial Attention - PMC
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Alpha-4 beta-2 nicotinic receptor - Wikipedia
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Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and learning and memory deficits in Neuroinflammatory diseases - PMC
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Frontiers | Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and learning and memory deficits in Neuroinflammatory diseases
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Positive allosteric modulation of the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor as a treatment for cognitive deficits after traumatic brain injury | PLOS One
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Traumatic brain injury: central and peripheral role of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors - PubMed
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Changes of learning and memory ability and brain nicotinic receptors of rat offspring with coal burning fluorosis - ScienceDirect
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Nicotinic modulation of hippocampal cell signaling and associated effects on learning and memory - PubMed
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A postmortem study of brain nicotinic receptors in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease - ScienceDirect
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Nicotinic receptors, memory, and hippocampus - PubMed
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α2* Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors influence hippocampus-dependent learning and memory in adolescent mice
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Chronic intermittent nicotine administration attenuates traumatic brain injury-induced cognitive dysfunction - PubMed
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[2203.05627] Quantifying Collective Memories
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Materialised Identities: Cultural Identity, Collective Memory, and Artifacts
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Materialised Identities: Cultural Identity, Collective Memory, and Artifacts | Review of Philosophy and Psychology
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The universal decay of collective ... | Article | H1 Connect
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Inheritance and Dissemination of Cultural Collective Memory: An Analysis of a Traditional Festival - Zhenjie Liao, Guangquan Dai, 2020
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Materialised identities: Cultural identity, collective memory, and artifacts - Tilburg University Research Portal
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Richard Heersmink, Materialised Identities: Cultural Identity, Collective Memory, and Artifacts - PhilArchive
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Technology and Sociology Essay: Cultural Memory Architecture: A Computational Model of Societal Information Processing | by Stonewall-Jackson Collins | Medium
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Collective memory - Wikipedia
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1 Materialised identities: Cultural identity, collective memory, and artifacts
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Memory Suppressor Genes: Modulating Acquisition, Consolidation, and Forgetting - PMC
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Segregation-to-integration transformation model of memory evolution | Network Neuroscience | MIT Press
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The Influence of Prior Knowledge on Memory: A Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective - PMC
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New Insights in Human Memory Interference and Consolidation - PMC
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Memory: Neurobiological mechanisms and assessment - PMC
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The Cost of Learning: Interference Effects in Memory Development - PMC
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Cognitive neuroscience perspective on memory: overview and summary - PMC
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Hands-on false memories: a combined study with distributional semantics and mouse-tracking - PMC
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Memory: Organization and Control - PMC