And then there’s “Versed,” which a medical friend told me yesterday, is known as the anesthesiologist’s friend.  E.g., suppose someone wakes up during their abdominal surgery.  Not a nice thing.  However,  a quick shot of Versed removes the memory, along with sending them back to sleep. 

I knew of the possibility of Versed through philosophical thought experiments, but I experienced the use of it recently, as reported here. 

The thought experiment:  How do you know you weren’t awake for the whole awful operation but just paralyzed and then given a drug which removed the memory of it?  It turns out this is technically possible.