It’s an “action film for the mind”. That’s the pitch. To promote new sci-fi movie MindGamers, someone thought it would be a good idea to strap a thousand audience members into “cognitive bands“. Tying into the movie’s debut, the bands will let researchers monitor and record the state of the audience’s mind simultaneously during the feature, resulting in a “mass-mind state” image of everyone’s feelings and brain activity. Details are thin on exactly what’s being monitored, although the screening is bookended by introductory talks and Q and As from experts in neuroscience technology. That may help to distract from having to wear a headband throughout the entire feature.
The movie (starring Sam Neill!) centers around a group of “brilliant young students” that create a “wireless neural network” that could link every mind in the world through a quantum computer. (Yes, that’s an awful lot of science for a movie description.) However, some kind of sinister threat arises from the idea connecting everyone’s brains, and they have to do something about it. I’m sure it has nothing to do with your cognitive headband. It might go without saying, but just in case: your mind will not be connected to your fellow moviegoers. This is a passive experiment. Relax. Relaaaaaax.
This is apparently the first time that researchers have tried to monitor so many people at once: the team behind it all pitches that the “collective conscious image” could drive research into the nature of human cognition. So relax and prepare to be confused, if not by the film then by the cognitive science explanations before and after. Tickets go on sale February 3rd for the March 28th event.
