The Loft Cinema Tucson, AZ
Stuart Hameroff
Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychology, University of Arizona; Director, Center for Consciousness Studies
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind— Eternal sunshine...with a chance of showers
Program Description
The memory-erasing technique used in the film by Lacuna Inc.—isolating specific memory locations by brain imaging and then zapping them away—is cool cinema but unrealistic science. Anesthesiologist and consciousness researcher Stuart Hameroff discusses scientific prospects for real memory manipulation, as well as our current understanding of consciousness, self, and our place in the universe. Part of the 2019 National Week of Science on Screen.
Presented At
The Loft Cinema Tucson, AZ
Film Synopsis
When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a procedure to have each other erased from their memories. But it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with.
Joel (Jim Carrey) is stunned to discover that his girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet), has had their tumultuous relationship erased from her mind. Out of desperation, he contacts the inventor of the process, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), to get the same treatment. But as his memories of Clementine begin to fade, Joel suddenly realizes how much he still loves her. From acclaimed writer Charlie Kaufman and visionary director Michel Gondry, this comical and poignant look at breakups, breakdowns, and breakthroughs won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
About the Speaker
Stuart Hameroff, M.D. joined the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Arizona in 1975. Aside from his full-time clinical role, Dr. Hameroff’s academic and research interests have related to the study of consciousness, how the brain produces conscious experience, and how anesthetics erase it. He has written or edited 5 books, more than one hundred articles, and discussed the science of consciousness in numerous TV shows on BBC, Discover Channel, History Channel, PBS, OWN, and in the film “What the Bleep?” As Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, Hameroff co-organizes (with philosopher David Chalmers) the conference series ‘Toward a Science of Consciousness’. Hameroff is co-developer, with British physicist Sir Roger Penrose, of the controversial Penrose-Hameroff ‘Orch OR’ theory of consciousness, based on quantum computations in microtubules.