In the heart of Los Angeles, nestled in the stylish walls of a home belonging to an Academy-Award nominated screenwriter and actress/producer power couple, a convergence of minds is taking place. Over 40 innovative writers, directors, producers, and showrunners are buzzing with ideas as they wait to listen to a talk by scientists on the nature of consciousness. This is one of the events co-hosted by The Science & Entertainment Exchange and the John Templeton Foundation. The Exchange transforms spaces into a hub of scientific discourse, blending the glamor and power of Hollywood with profound explorations of science. We chatted with a few of the people who participated in the event to learn more about how scientific ideas can spark awe and wonder in the entertainment world.
The art of brunch, science, and storytelling
Standing beside an outdoor buffet, writers, directors, producers, scientists, and studio executives talk animatedly about the latest advancements in quantum computing, space exploration, AI, movie making, international summer projects, and the brilliance of crows. They are guests at the home of Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jon Spaihts, the pen behind Dune, Dune II, Passengers, and Prometheus, and the actress, writer, and producer Johanna Watts. At a signal from Spaihts, they take seats before a small stage.
Facing guests at the front of the room are Jacob G. Foster, Professor of Informatics and Cognitive Science, and Erica Cartmill, Professor of Anthropology, Cognitive Science, and Animal Behavior. Both are at Indiana University and are Co-Directors of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute in St Andrews, Scotland. They are married and banter easily with one another and the audience. Rick Loverd, Program Director at The Science & Entertainment Exchange, makes introductory remarks, and the talk begins.
Diverse Intelligences: Two scientists share their research with industry insiders
“Diverse intelligence indexes a kind of transdisciplinary ethos that tries to build conversations and collaborations across many different disciplinary traditions,” says Foster, mentioning cognitive science, psychology, ethology, computer science, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology. The commitment, he says, is to engage in open-minded exploration.
“It’s not that anything could count as intelligence, but it’s trying to really broaden our view and to have a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach to studying and understanding the incredible diversity of minds that we share the planet with,”
says Cartmill, who as a child dreamed of being Dr. Doolittle. “We look for commonalities in the way that animals and people and algorithms might solve different tasks, might navigate their physical, social, and conceptual spaces, and develop new approaches, new concepts, and new frameworks for studying what it means to have a mind.”
Hollywood wants to know
Diverse forms of cognition can range from apes to humans to other animals. But also, to AI and extraterrestrials – catnip for non-scientists, and especially to Hollywood.
“People like talking and thinking about the animals that they share their lives with, whether they’re dogs or cats or fish or birds that come to their feeder, even things like, why do worms come up from the ground when it rains?” says Cartmill. Contemplating other forms of life enlarges our sense of the possible. “[People like to consider]” what it’s like to have a different kind of mind, a different kind of worldview, a different kind of body plan and social structure and way of navigating through the world,” she says.
One writer in the room, referencing the recent spate of whales attacking and sinking yachts, asked if “orcas were trolling yachts by just messing around with them for their own entertainment?”
People in the room “were definitely interested in talking about aliens…extraterrestrial intelligences or extraterrestrial societies,” says Foster, adding that other hot topics included: Will AI destroy the planet? If so, how long might that take? Why are people working on AI if so many think it will lead to human extinction?
Don’t underestimate your audience
“Dune, Arrival, Black Panther, and Oppenheimer are challenging movies. They’re spectacular and engaging, but they really ask a lot of you,” says Foster. “I cannot believe that [Oppenheimer] is as popular as it was. I think it’s astonishing that so many people wanted to see a movie, much of which is a bunch of guys standing around arguing about physics and technology and the moral implications of what they’re doing. And I think it speaks to the way in which films like that provide an important mythology for our era.”
The power of entertainment to change the world
“One of the things that I find very exciting about interacting with this entertainment community is that those are the people who are changing the minds of everyone else on the planet,” says Cartmill.
“Filmmakers can give people opportunities to really put themselves in the shoes of a creature that’s very different from ourselves,”
says Cartmill, referencing different bodies, social structures, interactions, cultures, ways of thinking and engaging with the world.
“We can be doing the science, but a small number of people are going to read scientific articles that I publish,” says Cartmill. “So, if some of the science we’re doing can inspire some of the artworks, films and shows and music that people in that room are producing, that’s incredibly exciting, but also humbling.”
Spielberg and a Big Idea: The birth of The Science & Entertainment Exchange
The National Academy of Sciences was established by an Act of Congress signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. The NAS’s mission includes “providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology” and “providing scientific advice to the government whenever called upon.”
Flash forward to 2008. “It was an interesting set of conversations that led to the birth of the exchange, and a lot of it came from Ralph Cicerone, who was the president of the National Academy of Sciences at the time,” says Ann Merchant, Deputy Executive Director for Communications at the National Academy of Sciences. The question was, what exactly is the big idea for communications at the National Academy of Sciences?
She says Neil Gershenfeld, Director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, a sister lab to the MIT Media Lab, “described an interaction with Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report world-building team, where he had been part of a group of STEM experts brought in to imagine a world that became the world onscreen.”
“I remember doing some digging and reading the literature about how influential film and television really were in communicating ideas around science, and who scientists were in the public’s perception,” says Merchant, calling film and TV “a kind of informal science curriculum for many people who have no interest in science documentaries on PBS or science stories in the newspaper. Science is not on their radar as something that they’re interested in unless it’s wrapped up in entertainment.” Thus, the Science & Entertainment Exchange was launched.
Thor & Beyond
Recognizing the need for a proactive approach, The Exchange realized they needed to be more than just a 1-800-call-a-scientist service.
Otherwise, “I think we’d only be answering questions about black holes and murder,” says Merchant. “And so, we quickly turned our attention to doing a lot of live events to stimulate conversations and inspire new thinking around a range of scientific topics that would otherwise not set the phones ringing.”
At first, “The science community was really worried that we would do harm to the reputation of the National Academy of Sciences, that we would almost give tacit permission to Hollywood to run rampant,” says Merchant. But it’s been a success.
In Thor: The Dark World, Merchant says The Exchange successfully advocated for Natalie Portman’s character to be an astrophysicist rather than a nurse, as written in the comic book. Other featured projects include Dr. Strange, Avengers, Apollo 18, Prometheus, and TV shows “Madam Secretary” and “The Big Bang Theory.”
“Certainly, there are limitations because of the basic process in Hollywood,” says Merchant. Even if there is an amazing conversation between a scientist and the writer, who then puts the best stuff into that script, “Hollywood is a meat grinder, and that script goes through so many hands. There are studio executives involved…every line, every bit of dialogue, every scenario that was originally written, you don’t know how it’s going to end up by the time it gets on screen.”
However, with the increased media attention that accompanies the release of films, scientists have been able to share the actual science with news journalists, helping inform the public directly.
Shaping imagination and the future
“Scientists often lead the screenwriters to places that are an unknown destination for them,” says Merchant, describing how they help screenwriters navigate the science landscape & imagine tools that can shape narrative.
“We always tell our science advisors your job is not to write the story. It’s not to be the entertainer. You’re not trying to go in there and do their jobs, but if you hand them the raw materials, then they will apply the imagination, shape that raw material with their incredible creative genius, and they’ll figure out the story to tell with it.”
Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jon Spaihts
Jon Spaihts was a physics major at Princeton University but knew he also wanted to be a writer. “I ended up being a political philosophy major, but my love of physics and hard science never went away,” says Spaihts, who has a rich history in science communications. “And then, of course, I went on to write science fiction movies for a living. And there, too, I’m often playing that ambassador role, bringing hard scientific concepts in digestible form to a popular audience.”
His introduction to The Exchange came early in his professional career, where he met and became friends with Exchange ambassadors Janet and Jerry Zucker.
“I’ve been a very avid supporter of The Exchange’s mission to promulgate good science. But perhaps most importantly of all to support the representation of scientists in popular media in a well-rounded and non-stereotypical way,” says Spaihts.
“The scientists I have met through The Exchange are overwhelmingly multifaceted, complex people, good-humored, charismatic, and charming, but there is a sort of pocket protector geek depiction in TV and film. I think letting the scientists be the humorists, the swashbuckling adventurers, and the polymaths that they are in real life to also be that on the screen is an important part of attracting young minds to the sciences. And I think it is a deeply beneficial mission at a societal level.”
Spaihts connected with The Exchange on Prometheus. “Some of that work also went on directly with Ridley Scott,” says Spaihts. “The language spoken by our extraterrestrial beings, the digital interfaces that exist on the engineer’s Starship in Prometheus and other aspects of the design were all consulted over with scientists that were matched by The Science and Entertainment Exchange.”
Mutual inspiration: Science & the Arts
“Science and the imaginative arts have a great deal in common in terms of offering a new perspective on life, intelligence, and society that is illuminating, and that tells us something about how the world is and how the world could be,” says Foster
“The best kind of science fiction really engages us and expands our sense of what’s possible…of course, great science fiction also often holds up a mirror to ourselves and to our own societies and our own ways of thinking about what’s normal and expected and what’s surprising.”
Foster and Cartmill, as well as scientists from NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, and institutions worldwide, conduct research inspired by film, TV, and literature, be it “Star Trek,” the Foundation book series by Isaac Asimov, and beyond.
Science in the modern era has grown so vast, “Now it is all a working scientist can do to stay conversant with developments in a subfield,” says Spaihts. “Science is too big to fit into a story in short, and a really gritty science lesson doesn’t fit into a film or an episode of television. But what we can fit in there is the thrill of the scientific adventure, the scientific method in action, the scientific philosophy of curiosity and experiment and observation. The excitement and inspiration that comes with that work is much more important than whether the audience gets a micro-lesson in explosive chemistry or orbital mechanics or whatever the topic of the film may be.”
Scientifically accurate information in movies is a commendable goal but not necessarily the ultimate objective. More importantly, it’s recognizing that scientists and visual storytellers aspire to explore the unknown and make sense of the world and ourselves, using our distinctly human powers of creativity, imagination, wonder, appreciation, and cleverness to discover things never before seen. Scientists and storytellers both learn from each other.
Alene Dawson is a Southern California-based writer known for her intelligent and popular features, cover stories, interviews, and award-winning publications. She’s a regular contributor to the LA Times.
