The movie "Limitless" is out this weekend wherein a pitiable schmuck who can't get started on his novel comes across a drug that allows him to use the 80% of his brain that he has not been using. One review of the movie is provided in the NY Times (quick before they charge you for it!): see: http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/movies/bradley-cooper-as-a-burned-out-writer-in-limitless-review.html?nl=movies&emc=mua2
A.O. Scott's review has this telling paragraph in it: |The expansion of Eddie’s mental capacity does not lead to any |corresponding growth in wisdom or imagination. Quite the |contrary: the more clearly and quickly he thinks, the shallower |he becomes. To be sure, he learns to play the piano and picks |up fluency in a smattering of foreign languages and high-flown |cultural idioms, but these skills are mostly useful in getting women |to sleep with him. And the cultural knowledge that is most handy |comes from the kung fu movies and boxing matches he suddenly |remembers from childhood when he is attacked by a bunch of |thugs on a subway platform one night. I don't know which is sadder: that this movie promotes the myth that people only use 20% of their brain (it was 10% back in the 20th century; a new century must have made us all smarter what with the intelligence promoting i-products ;-) or the accuracy of what the typical young U.S. male would do with greatly enhanced cognitive abilities, namely, figuring out how to get really desirable women to sleep (so to speak) with him. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=9460 or send a blank email to leave-9460-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
