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 ------ 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... --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)