Mindville

Mindville is a feature independent film directed by Nick Day and produced by Stuart Hameroff. In the early 1990s Stuart Hameroff teamed with renowned physicist Sir Roger Penrose to develop a theory of consciousness based on quantum effects.^[1] Mindville is a feature-length motion picture that combines live action with animation and effects to present a journey into the mysteries of human consciousness.

Plot

When his life starts to fall apart, Klaus sets off in search of something he can call real, and hitch-hikes his way across the blazing deserts of Arizona. Unexpectedly stranded on a lonely road to nowhere, it dawns on Klaus that he might be facing his final moments on Earth, and for the first time in his life he starts to question what will be gone – his consciousness. At this, he is mysteriously transformed into a virtual version of himself, a cartoon existing in a virtual version of the world.

Things only get stranger for Klaus when he’s rescued by Shahanna, also a cartoon, who is on a similar quest for the deeper knowledge of reality and is guarding a dark secret. Shahanna is accompanied by a guide, Nigel, a large floating brain. Nigel is all-knowing and is looking forward to retiring from mentoring a long succession of hapless humans on their existential quest. Nigel breaks it to Shahanna and Klaus that the only way they can get back to the real world is by going in search of answers at Mindville.

Mindville is a virtual fairground of the imagination located in a remote desert, where every ride and attraction is dedicated to some aspect of consciousness, the brain and reality, such as Plato’s Cave, The Stream of Consciousness, The Cartesian Theatre, and the Space-Time Continuum. As Shahanna and Klaus explore Mindville, they start gathering pieces of the puzzle. Great figures from history such as Plato, Descartes, Einstein and the Buddha are on hand to help them along. As our two heroes discover more about themselves and each other with every encounter, they gradually move closer to their ultimate goal.

Publicity

The film makers released the trailer to the film on their site and discussed the film at the Toward a Science of Consciousness conference in Tucson in 2012. This conference is widely regarded as a landmark event within the field of consciousness studies, and by bringing researchers from various disciplines together led to various useful synergies, resulting indirectly, for instance, in the formation of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, and more directly in the creation of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, of which Stuart Hameroff is now the director. The Center for Consciousness Studies hosts meetings on the study of consciousness every two years, as well as sponsoring seminars on consciousness theory.

Nick Day and Mindville were featured in The Huffington Post discussing the benefits of using crowdfunding sites such as Indiegogo for Independent film^[2]

See also

• Consciousness

References

External links

• Official website