Coolidge Corner Theatre Brookline, MA
Dr. Marc Hauser
Evolutionary Biologist, Harvard University
A Clockwork Orange— The Interface Between Evolutionary Biology and Cognitive Neuroscience
Program Description
A discussion of the interface between evolutionary biology and cognitive neuroscience, focusing on the mysteries of language evolution, conceptual representation, social cooperation, and morality.
Presented At
Coolidge Corner Theatre Brookline, MA
Film Synopsis
In future Britain, charismatic delinquent Alex DeLarge is jailed and volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to solve society's crime problem—but not all goes according to plan.
In an England of the future, Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), a derby-topped, charismatic young hooligan, rules the night time London streets along with his gang of "Droogs"—singing, fighting, stealing, and violating with terrifying glee and abandon while jauntily warbling "Singin' in the Rain." That is until young Alex is caught and convicted after a particularly nasty bit of "ultra-violence" one night. Thus begins his journey from amoral punk to proper citizen by way of an experimental therapy meant to cure him of his deviant impulses. Based on Anthony Burgess's novel of the same name, director Stanley Kubrick's controversial adaptation is a masterpiece of modern cinema.
About the Speaker
Dr. Marc Hauser's research sits at the interface between evolutionary biology and cognitive neuroscience, and is aimed at understanding how the minds of human and nonhuman animals evolved. By studying monkeys and apes in both the wild and in captivity, as well as human infants and adults, Hauser's work has unlocked some of the mysteries of language evolution, conceptual representation, social cooperation, communication, and morality. He is a Harvard college professor in the Departments of Psychology, Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, and Biological Anthropology, co-director of the Mind, Brain and Behavior Program, director of the Cognitive Evolution Laboratory, and the author of more than 200 papers and five books.