MIT Discovers The Location Of Memories: Individual Neurons

Does removing the trigger from my shotgun mean that the shotgun no longer exists or that the gun is somehow "stored" in the trigger?

Exactly. It is this type of 'science' writing that makes one pine for the day researchers discover a way to aim a laser at these journos' heads and make them intelligent.

From the end of the article: "The question now, though, is how memories are actually encoded - can we programmatically create new memories and thus learn entire subjects by inserting a laser into our brain? We know that a cluster of neurons firing can trigger the memory of your first kiss - but why? How can 100 (or 100,000) neurons, firing in a specific order, conjure up a beautifully detailed image of an elephant? We've already worked out how images are encoded by the optic nerve, [until trials can be shown to recreate the image 100% of the time, the jury is still out, I think] so hopefully MIT isn't too far away from finding out." [Bracketed comments are mine.]

As a devil's advocate, I would argue that this doesn't prove that memory/memories is/are actually stored in neurons. What if triggering the neurons is no more than switching a switch that allows the "memory" to flow "through" and appear in our "consciousness"... whatever that is. As the second, linked article points out, "the brain is a virtual black box."

And what technology would be required to, first, identify all the specific neurons that are firing (for instance in the above mentioned case of 100,000 or more) and then the order?

To cloud these conclusions even further this article (http://www.chuckholton.com/Hypnosis_%26_Memory.pdf - sorry, link no longer available) (as an example) discusses memory and recall via hypnosis. Can a memory even be verified as a true memory -- a recreation of something that actually happened? It is very subjective and maybe even the subject can't tell. It raises other interesting questions.

For the second article to end with this statement: "The age of bionics is almost here!" is naive and extremely premature, I think. Nothing wrong with fantasy, though. It is the reservoir for scientific achievement.