Coming Soon: A machine that swaps your bad memories for good

Coming soon to Dunedin: A machine that swaps your bad memories for good

Imagine if there was a machine, so magnificent that it could delete your most embarrassing or horrid memories and replace them with exciting, fun ones.

Next Monday, August 8 Dunedin will get the chance to see just such a machine in action as CanTeen, New Zealand’s charity that supports young people living with cancer, unveils its Magnificent Memory Machine.

The machine requires only a $3 text donation in return for expunging the worst memories of the user and exchanging them with enjoyable new ones.

The machine, which looks like a collaboration between Dr Who and Dr Seuss, has been touring the country destroying all bad memories and will be arriving in Dunedin on Tuesday where it will be based at the Meridian Mall until Friday August 12.

A $3 text donation will make the machine ‘come alive’. The participant can then input their bad memory into the machine, which will exchange it for a brand new ethereal memory printed on a ticket. New memories – such as hugging a stranger, giving someone the thumbs up or doing something a bit wacky are expected to go a long way to put a smile on someone’s face.

The machine will also live online at www.memorymachine.co.nz as well as on Facebook, and will operate in the same way as the actual machine. This way, those living outside of Dunedin will also have the opportunity to replace their bad memories with great new ones.

Dunedin CanTeen patient member Sarah Young will be one of the first in line to use the machine when it hits the town next week.

Sarah was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma- cancer of both the eyes- at just 6 weeks old.

Now 14, Sarah has been in remission for almost eight years but says the memories of her experience with cancer are still strong and she’d happily trade them in.

“The worst was probably the surgery and then afterwards. It was pretty horrible,” she says.

CanTeen’s Marketing and Communications Manager, Kimberley Waters, is sure the machine will be a big hit with Dunedinites.

“Everyone has at least one memory they wish they could erase. The Magnificent Memory Machine lets them do that in a fun way while also giving them the chance to donate $3 to CanTeen.”

“Creating great new memories is, in essence, what CanTeen strives to do every day for our members. Unfortunately we don’t have a machine that can take away the memories cancer generates, but we do like to have fun and create special experiences and opportunities for our members that help them better deal with cancer and thrive beyond it. When young people living with cancer get together and share their experiences, it creates an environment where better memories really can outshine the bad ones.”

Many people have enjoyed their own new memories as a result of helping to create the Magnificent Memory Machine for free, such as creators M&C Saatchi, the machine’s builders Three Sixty Design Ltd, and photographer Stephen Langdon.

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