What if you could suddenly share the mind and skills of a Stephen Hawking, Beyoncé, Usain Bolt or anyone and everyone on the planet? That question, and the concept of hacking the human mind and being able to share or modify knowledge and skills is the premise of a new movie, MindGamers.
It has been demonstrated on a rudimentary level using rats that it seems scientifically possible to share information from one brain to another through technology. The human brain is much more complex, and the science is still in the early stages, but it is theoretically possible that human minds could be connected to one another and share skills and knowledge. Perhaps, we may eventually even achieve the ability to simply download or install information–like when Tank transfers the knowledge of how to fly a helicopter to Trinity in a matter of seconds in the movie the Matrix.
There is a downside as well, though. With most scientific and technological advances, the benefits to society are often a matter of perspective–and something with the potential to do tremendous good for humanity can also unleash terrible evil if it falls into the wrong hands. With MindGamers, the question becomes what happens if the wrong people have access to the ability to manipulate and control minds for the wrong reasons.
What makes MindGamers even more interesting is that Terra Mater Films is partnering with Fathom Events to help move the real-world science behind the movie forward. On March 28, 1,000 participants will be connected to a neural network while watching a screening of MindGamers. The MindGamers: One Thousand Minds Connected Live event will offer neuroscientists an unprecedented opportunity to monitor brain activity en masse and examine how individuals react to various stimuli in the movie versus how the collective consciousness of the entire group. There will also be some experiments to determine whether the group–or segments of the group–can consciously affect their environment.
We won’t be “installing” the skills and knowledge to fly a helicopter directly into a human brain any time soon, but MindGamers looks like an intense thriller worth seeing, and the science behind it and the MindGamers: One Thousand Minds Connected Live event is a step in the right direction.
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