Beyond BCIs Werner Herzog muses on mysteries of the brain in Theater of Thought Auteur director's latest documentary runs the gamut from BCIs and how we construct reality to whether fish can dream. Jennifer Ouellette Dec 13, 2024 1:12 pm | 16 Credit: Argot Pictures Credit: Argot Pictures Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreWerner Herzog has made more than 60 films over his illustrious career. His documentaries alone span an impressive topical range, from the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell (Grizzly Man) to people who choose to live and work in Antarctica (the Oscar-nominated Encounters at the End of the World) or a haunting exploration of the oldest human paintings in France's Chauvet Cave (Cave of Forgotten Dreams). His latest offering, Theater of Thought, tackles what might be his most ambitious subject yet: the mysterious inner workings of the brain.Theater of Thought premiered in 2022 at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado and is now getting a theatrical release. Herzog's inspiration grew out of his conversations with Rafael Yuste, a Columbia University neurobiologist who also served as scientific advisor on the film. "How can we read thoughts?" he writes in his director's statement. "Can you implant a chip in your brain and in my brain, and see my new film without a camera? Why is it that some young people immerse themselves in video games and become addicted to completely artificial worlds? Sometimes mice even prefer invented cartoon worlds, so who is the ghost writer of our mind, of our reality?"The topic might be scientific in nature, but Theater of Thought is not really a science documentary, despite Herzog's use of the classic talking head format. It's more of a personal, almost quixotic quest, with plenty of random branching digressions along the way. "It was like a road movie, one Monument Valley and one Grand Canyon, then one Mount Everest after the other," Herzog told Ars. "You just couldn't stop wondering and enjoying." For the viewer, it's as much a journey through the eccentric workings of Herzog's endlessly curious, nimble mind.That mind is partly revealed through Herzog's running narration, such as when he muses about collective behavior and whether fish have soulsa digression sparked by his interview with Siri co-inventor Tom Gruber. "In the background, I saw his TV screen still on, we didn't switch it off, and I saw some very, very strange school of fish," said Herzog. "I asked him about the school of fish, which he had filmed himself. And all of a sudden, I'm only interested in the fish and common behavior. Why do they behave in big schools, in unison? Why do they do that? Do they dream? And if they think, what are they thinking about? I immerse the audience into a very strange form of underwater landscape and behavior of fish." Werner Herzog's inspiration for Theater of Thought arose from conversations with Columbia University neuroscientist Rafael Yuste, who served as science advisor on the film. Argot Pictures Werner Herzog's inspiration for Theater of Thought arose from conversations with Columbia University neuroscientist Rafael Yuste, who served as science advisor on the film. Argot Pictures Yuste (left) with Kernel founder Bryan Johnson (right). Argot Pictures Yuste (left) with Kernel founder Bryan Johnson (right). Argot Pictures The University of Washngton's Rajesh Rao specializes in human brain-to-brain communications. Argot Pictures The University of Washngton's Rajesh Rao specializes in human brain-to-brain communications. Argot Pictures Yuste (left) with Kernel founder Bryan Johnson (right). Argot Pictures The University of Washngton's Rajesh Rao specializes in human brain-to-brain communications. Argot Pictures University of Washington neuroscientist Eberhard Fetz Argot Pictures Herzog's camera captures a brain surgery in progress, Argot Pictures We glimpse the inner workings of Herzog's mind in the kinds of questions he asks his subjects, such as when he queries IBM's Dario Gil, who works on quantum computing, about his passion for fishing, eliciting an enthusiastic smile in response. He agrees to interview University of Washington neuroscientist Christof Koch after Koch's early-morning row on the Puget Sound and includes music from New York University neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux's band, the Amygdaloids, in the film's soundtrack. He asks married scientists Cori Bargmann and Richard Axel about music, their dinner conversations, and the linguistic capabilities of parrots. In so doing, he brings out their innate humanity, not just their scientific expertise."That's what I do. If you don't have it in you, you shouldn't be a filmmaker," said Herzog. "But you see, also, the joy of getting into all of this and the joy of meeting these scientists. We are talking about speaking parrots. What if two parrots learned a language that is already extinct and they would speak to each other? What would we make of it? So I'm asking, spontaneously, because I saw it, I sensed it, there was something I should depart completely from scientific quests. And yet there's a deep scientific background to it."This sense leads Herzog to make some unexpected connections. Case in point: He deftly segues from an interview with LeDoux on his work mapping the mechanisms of fear in the brain to a visit with veteran tightrope walker Philippe Petit. Petit famously performed a high-wire walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974, so he knows something about confronting and conquering fear.At one point, he asks a subject whether it's possible to use brain-reading technology to ask someone who has just died if they are in heaven or hell. Herzog is a filmmaker, so this naturally leads him to a 1930 Soviet silent film called Earth. "It has to do with the joy of filmmaking," Herzog said of his decision to include a clip from Earth. "The beginning of the film, an old peasant is dying under an apple tree, on a big heap of apples. And all the other peasants surround him, and one of them asks, 'Can you give us some sort of sign, when you are dead, whether there is paradise?' It's such a beautiful beginning of a movie."For Herzog, making the documentary was about the journey and following the whims of his insatiable curiosity; he was less concerned about finding definitive answers. It's a wise approach, given how much we have to learn about how the physical mass of tissue that is the brain gives rise to complex human thought and consciousness. "Not a single one of the scientists, not one, could even tell you what a thought is, and not a single one could even tell you what consciousness is," he said. "There are open questions that will remain open for probably a very, very long time. But it doesn't matter. Let's engage in finding out. I'm comfortable that certain things we'll never know. At the same time, there's this great joy of exploration and trying to get answers, even if they're only incomplete."Theater of Thought is now playing in select theaters. Trailer for Werner Herzog's Theater of Thought. Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior Writer Jennifer is a senior reporter at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 16 Comments