Hello TIPsters:
I am in the happy position of getting to offer an elective seminar this
spring, which I have dubbed "Prime Time Cognitive-Neuroscience". The
idea is to use television programming that incorporates
brain-mind-behavior science ideas into the storylines, in order to help
our students (these will be mostly seniors) integrate and reinforce many
of the things they've learned over the last three years. We use these
programs as a lens thru which we try to get an idea of what public
perceptions of the current state of our knowledge is and where the
public thinks we might be headed, and then do our best to see how
reasonable these are, given what we know right now.
There are lots of obvious examples, many very recent but some older:
1. Battlestar Galactica (artificial intelligence, etc)
2. Dollhouse (mind control, memory alteration)
3. House (you name it, they've done it)
4. Six Million Dollar Man (advanced prosthetics)
So: here is my request--
I'm trying to organize the semester not by shows per se, but by major
themes. I wonder if you could take a look at my draft themes list, and
critique it, or add some of your own. Note that I am going for MAJOR
themes--the ones that come up over and over again.
1. Advanced Neural Prosthetics (ala Georgie LaForge in Star Trek TNG and
the $6M Man)
2. Amnesia/Memory Loss (due to accidental or intentional causes, or
disease)
3. Cognitive Enhancement (smart pills implanted memory devices computer
chips in the brain etc)
4. Mind Control (e.g. the recent episode of Fringe where the kid took
all the pills and gained this power, but think also Jose Delgado and the
bull with the implanted stimulator)
5. Mind Reading (could be really far-fetched a la The Cell but also
might include detection of deception as in Lie to Me)
6. Artificial Intelligence/Robotics ("computers take over" a la BSG and
Terminator but also Commander Data in TNG)
7. Virtual Worlds (artificially generated hallucinations, sort of goes
with Mind Control, but really refers to implanting thoughts and sensory
experiences, usually more for entertainment purposes)
8. Emotional Hostages (technological/pharmaceutical control of emotions
for benign or malign purposes)
9. Medical Mysteries (sort of a catch-all category of which House is
perhaps the most
prominent recent example, but includes lots of the hospital-dramas like
ER and Grey's Anatomy)
10. My Tumor Made Me Do It (Law & Order-type shows, where someone's
organic disease/damage causes them to commit a crime of some kind)
11. Chemical Mind (aka Altered states. Think the famous "Blue Boy"
episode from Dragnet)
That set of themes seems to cover a lot of ground, but I wonder if you
can think of any big ones that aren't one this list? Also, if you have
any specific episodes that are really good then I'd appreciate your
suggestions there as well. Old, new, great, awful, drama, comedy, live
action, animated series, American, foreign--doesn't matter. Just so long
as they serve as a good focal point for our discussions, and fit well
within one of the major themes.
Note that this is really more "Fiction based on science" than it is
"Science Fiction" although obviously a lot of sci-fi will work very
well.
Thanks in advance
Mike Donnelly
UW-Stout Dept of Psychology
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P.S.: TV only. We did "At the Movies" last year, and this is a partial
list
-Johnny Mnemonic (cognitive enhancement, plus perhaps the best example
of overacting by a major star ever put to the big screen. "What do I
want? I want room service!!! and a club sandwich!!!!!!)
-Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein (together they make about 150
min; features a brain transplant, and something surprisingly like
genetic experimentation. Surprisingly cool, plus you get to see just how
well Mel Brooks did in putting together Young Frankenstein)
-Possible Worlds (brains in a vat...literally)
-Diving Bell & the Butterfly
-Robocop (neural control of robots)
-Existenz (virtual worlds for the purpose of entertainment)
-Clean Slate (like Memento, but played for laughs)
-Eternal Sunshine Spotless Mind (memory alteration, of course)
-Fiend without a Face (the final 40 minutes, just for fun on day 1 of
the course)
So you have an idea of the range of the things we like...
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