Did the movie Pi really have a government conspiracy involving brain implants?

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The discussion centers on a movie featuring a mathematician who misidentifies the number phi as theta while explaining mathematical concepts, which some participants found cheesy. A key plot point involves the protagonist drilling into his skull, leading to a loss of his genius and raising questions about the implications of such an act. One interpretation suggests that the government implanted a device in his brain to enhance his intelligence for stock market predictions. Participants debate the accuracy of the film’s portrayal of mathematics and the protagonist's mental state, with some viewing the film as pretentious and others appreciating its depth. The conversation also touches on the real-life inspiration behind the character, Max Cohen, who built a supercomputer to analyze the stock market. Overall, opinions on the film vary, with some finding it exceptional while others criticize its scientific inaccuracies.
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Has anyone ever seen this movie? It really is not all that great, and in one scene the main character, which is a mathmatician, is describing the number phi and the logarithmic spiral, but for some reason he calls it theta instead of phi. I don't know if that is completely incorrect, or if some people refer to the ratios of the golden rectangle as theta, but it seemed to make the movie seem cheesy to me. But the reason why I am taking about this movie is because I think that I figured it out. The government implanted some type of device in his brain to make him so smart he can extract an algorithm that will predict the stock market extremely accurately. The trying to predict the stock market part is made clear in the movie, but in one scene he drills into his skull with a power tool, and in the next scene he is not a genius anymore. And it does not explain this (obviously someone would either die, or cause extreme brain damage by doing this, but I am just talking about the extremely fictional scenario from this movie). Sorry if what I have written does not make any sense, it is like 2:30am and I have been studying for about 8 hours, my brain is like mush.
 
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Well, technically speaking a drill to the brain might cause fairly negligible brain damage depending on where it struck and how deep it went. The much bigger concern would be blood loss, I think. Anyway, the idea was that there was some specific part of his brain that was responsible for his mathematical genius/madness, and by lesioning that area with the drill he 'cured' himself.
 
Is that your interpretation, or is that the what actually happened? I missed about ten minutes close to the end of the movie, and came in right before he drilled into his head. Was there something I missed?
 
I loved the movie. Then again I dispise anything hollywood.
 
JoshHolloway said:
Is that your interpretation, or is that the what actually happened? I missed about ten minutes close to the end of the movie, and came in right before he drilled into his head. Was there something I missed?

I don't recall the specific sequence of events, but I always thought it was fairly self-evident that that was how it was meant to be taken. From what I recall I suppose your conspiracy interpretation is consistent with the storyline also, but I don't recall anything in the movie that would really hint at that interpretation.
 
I thought it was a pretentious movie designed by non-science/math types to appeal to non-science/math types.
 
Remember max was studying all those books, and established that the area responsible for his mathematical abilities was located there..

Pi was based on a true story as well. There actually is a Max Cohen who has built his own supercomputer to analyze the New York stock exchange, and is really introvert and dosn't like people.

I tried to find his thesis on my college's databases but had no luck. I did just find http://www.pithemovie.com/who.html.
 
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JoshHolloway said:
Has anyone ever seen this movie? It really is not all that great, and in one scene the main character, which is a mathmatician, is describing the number phi and the logarithmic spiral, but for some reason he calls it theta instead of phi. I don't know if that is completely incorrect, or if some people refer to the ratios of the golden rectangle as theta, but it seemed to make the movie seem cheesy to me. But the reason why I am taking about this movie is because I think that I figured it out. The government implanted some type of device in his brain to make him so smart he can extract an algorithm that will predict the stock market extremely accurately. The trying to predict the stock market part is made clear in the movie, but in one scene he drills into his skull with a power tool, and in the next scene he is not a genius anymore. And it does not explain this (obviously someone would either die, or cause extreme brain damage by doing this, but I am just talking about the extremely fictional scenario from this movie). Sorry if what I have written does not make any sense, it is like 2:30am and I have been studying for about 8 hours, my brain is like mush.
Well, I saw the movie on the Sundance channel, and I rate it as "very-exceptionally good" on my rating system.

The drill part: the government device was implanted right under the skin apparently, you can see the bump in the side of his head.

I liked the Jewish extremists :biggrin:
 
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