There’s a moment in “Theater of Thought” (in theaters) when Darío Gil, the director of research at IBM, is explaining quantum computing to Werner Herzog, the movie’s director. Standing before a whiteboard, Gil draws some points on spheres to illustrate how qubits work, then proceeds to define the Schrödinger equation. As he talks and writes, the audio grows quieter, and Herzog’s distinctive resonant German accent takes over. “I admit that I literally understand nothing of this, and I assume most of you don’t either,” he intones in voice-over. “But I found it fascinating that this mathematical formula explains the law that draws the subatomic world.”
It’s a funny moment, a playful way to keep us from glazing over when presented with partial differential equations. Herzog may be a world-renowned filmmaker, but he’s hardly a scientist, and that makes him the perfect director for “Theater of Thought,” a documentary about, as he puts it, the “mysteries of our brain.”
Emphasis on mysteries. Herzog interviews a dizzying array of scientists, researchers, and even a Nobel Prize winner or two. He asks them about everything: how the brain works, what consciousness means, what the tiniest organisms in the world are, whether parrots understand human speech, whether rogue governments can control thoughts, whether we’re living in an elaborate simulation, how telepathy and psychedelics work, and, at several points, what thinking even is. Near the end of the film he notes that not one of the scientists could explain what a thought is, or what consciousness is, but “they were all keenly alive to the ethical questions in neuroscience.” In other words, they’re immersed in both the mystery and what their field of study implies about the future of humanity.
There’s a boring way to make this movie, with talking-head interviews that are arranged to form a coherent argument. Herzog goes another direction, starting off by narrating why he’s making it, then talking about his interviewees as we are introduced to them in their labs or in their favorite outdoor settings. (He also visits Philippe Petit, the Twin Towers tightrope walker, as he practices in his Catskills backyard.) Herzog’s constant verbal presence brings us into his own head space — his own brain, if you will — and gives us the sense that we’re following his patterns of thought.
The whole thing is structured roughly as a road trip across America, which leads to a few other vintage Herzogian chuckles. Driving down the highway in New Jersey toward a prison, he somberly muses, “Where is the prairie? Where did the buffalo go?” Later, he’s thinking about schools of fish, which seem to move in a way that suggests connected consciousness. “Do fish have souls? Do fish have dreams? Do they only dream this landscape?” he contemplates aloud. “Do they think? Do they have thoughts at all?” And so on. Say that in Herzog’s voice, and it’s thoughtful but also kind of hilarious.
I first saw this movie several years ago, before it premiered on the 2022 film festival circuit. It’s taken awhile to be released to the public, and to my surprise it actually works better now than it did then. Herzog’s explorations lead him to researchers who work on artificial intelligence and the possibilities, intriguing and frightening, presented by neurotechnologies. In late 2022, most of us didn’t think all that much about A.I., but now the ethical questions are on many minds. Herzog’s journey leads him there, and it’s both awe-inspiring and provocative. We may not understand the brain any more after seeing it, but we’re definitely tuned into the mystery.
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