Movies with AI/Neuroscience themes

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Discussions centered around films with neuroscience and AI themes highlight several notable titles, including "Transcendence," which explores the creation of neuronal patterns in computers, and "Limitless," which features cognitive enhancement through a fictional pill. Classic films like "Brainstorm" and modern entries such as "Her" and "Ex Machina" are also mentioned for their engaging portrayals of AI and consciousness. The conversation touches on the scientific implications of these narratives, with references to the complexities of human cognition and the potential for AI to mimic or enhance human thought processes. Films like "Memento" are noted for their exploration of memory and mental impairment, while "The Matrix" and "Star Trek" series are recognized for their sophisticated representations of AI. The thread emphasizes the intersection of entertainment and scientific inquiry, inviting further exploration of how these themes resonate with ongoing research in neuroscience.
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What is the best movie you have seen with neuroscience themes. I recently watched Transcendence in the video. It's about how they tried to create neuronal patterns and simulations in computer. But latter patterning it with a real person neuronal firing patterns to make the computer able to think. Later the semi sentient being in the computer were able to expand the mind with more computational resources.. even using the entire internet.

Movie with neuroscience or AI themes are interesting because scientists are presently studying precisely them. What are the list of movies with these ideas and what is the best you have seen?
 
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ephen wilb said:
What is the best movie you have seen with neuroscience themes. I recently watched Transcendence in the video. It's about how they tried to create neuronal patterns and simulations in computer. But latter patterning it with a real person neuronal firing patterns to make the computer able to think. Later the semi sentient being in the computer were able to expand the mind with more computational resources.. even using the entire internet.

Movie with neuroscience or AI themes are interesting because scientists are presently studying precisely them. What are the list of movies with these ideas and what is the best you have seen?

It's an oldie, but I enjoyed Brainstorm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)

:smile:
 
berkeman said:
It's an oldie, but I enjoyed Brainstorm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)

:smile:

It's not an oldie. It's a 2014 film http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendence_(2014_film )

I will watch Brainstorm after getting it. But it is 1983 ish and not latest. What other good ones there?

I want to be inspired to develop my brain better and wonder if a person brain can be improved to that of Witten level to understand difficult math problems.
 
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I quite enjoyed Limitless, both in story and how it was shot. Not to mention I'd love a few of those pills ;)
 
ephen wilb said:
It's not an oldie. It's a 2014 film http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendence_(2014_film )

I will watch Brainstorm after getting it. But it is 1983 ish and not latest. What other good ones there?

I want to be inspired to develop my brain better and wonder if a person brain can be improved to that of Witten level to understand difficult math problems.

He's saying Brainstorm is an oldie, not Transcendence :) I think Star Trek dealt with complex AI well, with Data, the EMH and maybe V'ger the best examples, where the machines are similar to their creators, whether through positronic brains, neural nets or neural programming. In terms of film, there are plenty of intelligent programs throughout The Matrix trilogy, all clearly intelligent forms of life. In terms of actual human consciousness/neural activity being transferred into AI, I'm not too sure (although if you'll allow me to return to Star Trek, there is an episode where a man managed to upload himself into the android, Data, before he died - he lives on within this AI for some time.)
 
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Ryan_m_b said:
I quite enjoyed Limitless, both in story and how it was shot. Not to mention I'd love a few of those pills ;)

I enjoyed this movie a lot, but I'm pretty sure the neuroscience behind the premise is flawed. Regardless, I too really want some of those pills.
 
  • #10
Greg Bernhardt said:
Does Memento count?

That movie certainly opens up neuroscience way past science fiction. That's pure mental impairment. Intense imaginative film.

There is a book on your topic
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786472340/?tag=pfamazon01-20

There are many films where people connect their brains to something and enter virtual worlds, But, that seems less about the neuroscience and more about the adventure.

Or, using the mind to control others or machines? http://ibnlive.in.com/photogallery/2204-1.html

Is Robocop an AI/neuroscience film? I liked the first one.
How about Flatliners or other "near death" movies?

I Robot?

This page has a section for films:
\http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_uploading_in_fiction#Film?
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Inception

I haven't seen a film that rates as hard science fiction based on neuroscience. Flatliners seems close.

This is supposed to be a good neuroscience science fiction book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GLX0U0K/?tag=pfamazon01-20 but I have not read it (yet - just discovered it because of this thread)
 
  • #11
2001 A Space Odessy with Hal.

If you're interested in a book. I read Prey by Michael Crichton a few years ago. I enjoyed it when I read it. Deals with Swarm intellegence and emergent behaviour
 
  • #12
I thought the treatment of AI marines in "Interstellar" was pretty amazing TARS, CASE, KIPP; The way they used familiar and efficient modes of speech, and had genuine humor, didn't look human, and knew each other, and had these different and surprising physical mechanics. I thought they were cleverly imagined.
 
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  • #13
Greg Bernhardt said:
Does Memento count?
I loved Memento, I watched a documentary on people with actual short term memory impairments. They go to a restaurant with friends, but cannot go to the bathroom without someone because they forget where they are. Some have started using tablets, smartphones etc... to take pictures and make notes of where they are, why and how to find their way back. It's very sad.
 
  • #14
Bandersnatch said:
There were two great films about AI that came out recently - Her and Ex Machina. The second one is probably still in cinemas near you.
Very, very good, both of them.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/her/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ex_machina/

Just finished watching Ex Machina.. It's excellent! Now I know why it's all 5 stars at tomato.. you won't regret it.. the script writing is good. Well. Terminator Genisys is coming about next month. Need to rewatch part II the part where Skynet become self-aware. Remember Skynet was created to deal with complex threats.. I forgot the exact details.. the logic being that you can't just rely on human elements to deal with simultaneous multi-threats but an AI. This becomes interesting in light of North Korea able to lunch nukes in submarines and Russian getting more aggressive and itchy fingers at the nuclear buttons

Will watch first Her tomorrow. Any other movies like these? I watched the others previously.

None movies like sci-fiction novels of AI ok too. I'm looking for a story where humans are the AI (got this idea after watching Ex Machina).
 
  • #15
The following are the gem or conversations in the movie Ex_Machina (I'd like to know if the concepts are taken from actual work or books, I know the second conversations about Mary in the Black and White Room are really in the literature. Well?):

At 37 minutes into the movie the following is the conversation of the character.

Scientist: Here,
we have her mind.
Structured gel.
I had to get away from circuitry.
I needed something that could
arrange and rearrange
on a molecular level,
but keep its form when required.
Holding for memories.
Shifting for thoughts.
This is your hardware?
Wetware.
Turing tester: And the, uh... software?
Scientist: Well, I'm sure you can guess.
Blue Book.
Here's the weird thing
about search engines.
It was like
striking oil in a world that hadn't
invented internal combustion.
Too much raw material.
Nobody knew what to do with it.
You see, my competitors,
they were fixated on sucking it up
and monetizing via shopping
and social media.
They thought that search engines were
a map of what people were thinking.
But actually they were a map
of how people were thinking.
Impulse.
Response.
Fluid.
Imperfect.
Patterned.
Chaotic.The following conversation is from 51 minutes into the movie:

Scientist: There was a thought experiment
they gave us.
It's called
"Mary in the Black and White Room."
Mary is a scientist,
and her specialist subject is color.
She knows everything
there is to know about it.
The wavelengths.
The neurological effects.
Every possible property
that color can have.
But she lives in a black and white room.
She was born there and raised there.
And she can only observe
the outside world
on a black and white monitor.
And then one day someone opens the door.
And Mary walks out.
And she sees a blue sky.
And at that moment, she learns something
that all her studies couldn't tell her.
She learns what it feels like
to see color.
The thought experiment
was to show the students
the difference between a computer
and a human mind.
The computer is Mary
in the black and white room.
The human is when she walks out.
 
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