Extreme Fear

Getting a grip on the brain's alarm system.

The Neuro-Nonsense of Inception

To put it in Wolfgang Pauli's memorable phrasing, the mental universe of Inception isn't even wrong. From a scientific and a philosophical point of view, Inception doesn't make any sense at all. Read More

well..

Technically from a scientific point of view it makes no sense but you must admit it was a bangin movie fantastic effects great actors believable characters the only thing missing was more logic(how exactly did they enter the dreams and how did they even survive? wouldnt the subconsious immediatly kill you off the moment you entered, the brain is not blind it knows when its invaded and why when induced if gone to far into the dream do you
fall into limbo what exactly is limbo any way its all in the mind in the first place since when do dreams become this complex? and have multiple levels other peoples dreams cant slip intom your dreams i mean really)

The point of nonsense

I do hope that theatre-goers did not view the concept of Inception as 'intuitively acceptable.' I'd like to think that the general population has a bit more sense than that, and embraces it for what it is: fantasy. The essence of it - it's things that can make no sense in real life and are for the most part impossible, and that's what makes it so appealing to regular readers/viewers of that genre - that it can be scientifically impossible, and yet here is amazing unfamiliar world to imagine if it was.

'I found myself constantly fighting to suspend my disbelief,' If everyone took that approach, the fantasy & sci-fi genre would be buried in dust from the beginning. But the reality (harhar) of it is that it's incredibly popular, and that is because people love it and accept it and choose not to question its viability in real life. Because it's not real life. And they know that.

Which is why I wouldn't find myself 'sinking into depression at the realization that Nolan's concept of the dream-state would likely register as intuitively acceptable to many theatergoers. Perhaps I've been overthinking things.' Perhaps you have. I mean, at least I would HOPE that they would know better than to believe it.

It does seem like I am trying to explain about things you already know, which is not my place, but I just felt compelled to give my opinion. And if it seems like I made some mocking remarks, well, I apologise for that too. I just wanted to put across that what makes fantasy fantasy is that it's not necessarily meant to make sense.

There is a large part - the logical side - that agrees with you on some things, but the rest viewed the scientific error analysis with slight scorn, if only because I believe that Inception wasn't meant to be something analysed - it's fantasy. It's not real. It's not scientifically viable. It's nonsense. It's lovely, lovely nonsense. And that's my reason for enjoying it.

but there are different kinds of nonsense

Right? A great deal of fiction asks us to accept a world which is obviously different from our own, and that's fairly easy to do so long as the imagined world is, among other things, internally consistent and logical. But when the fictional world clashes with our fundamental understanding of the universe works, we start to have trouble. For instance, it wouldn't be hard to accept a movie set in a world in which all Californians are purple, but it would be hard to accept a world in which a rainbow can be found hiding under a bush (as happened in an episode of "Dora the Explorer"; I minded, my 2-year-old son didn't).

That is very true, fictional

That is very true, fictional world do require a kind of balance between what is acceptably nonsensical and what needs have some logic to it, but I suppose it also depends on how high a level of fundemental understanding you are talking about; most people are comfortable accepting the world of Inception because the concepts that have the scientific errors are beyond their level of fundamental understanding - excluding the people more educated in the world of science, which is where you come in, and I get where you're coming from. I tend to be picky about the technicalities of issues I happen to know a more-than-usual amount about, too. I wrote this yesterday and am trying to remember what the point I was trying to make with this was.
I'll have to think this through again...

Ah. I wanted to have more faith in the general population, that's all - they may find it acceptable enough to not question the concepts in a fantasy world, but that doesn't mean that they believe that all its concepts are scientifically possible in the real world. Or, maybe I was just using myself as an example.

In any case, I'm pretty sure that I contradicted myself in one way or another, nevertheless I enjoyed thinking through these arguments and learning from them, no matter how much sense they did or didn't make.

After all, I'm just a high school student procrastinating and sorely waiting for upcoming graduation. And by the way, thank you for humouring me. I needed something that was actually interesting to ponder about. Einstein had it right: 'The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.'

On looking back...

Wow. I pride myself on not being part of the teenage stereotype of ignorance, but I pretty much just fulfilled the generalisation of teenage arrogance. Ah, well. This humbles me. Just another reminder that I still have worlds to learn.

No you didn't!

Your point was well taken, and you expressed it well. You may be young, but your application of thoughtfulness and intelligence will lead you to conclusions as valid as anyone else's.

...

Well, thank you.

Sedation and Limbo

Well usually in the film, you wake up when killed in a dream. You end up in Limbo if you go too many layers down and die. And if we combine a depth of several layers with an "extremely powerful sedative", it's not hard to see that the mind has to go somewhere - namely Limbo.

And oh, I loved Inception. Thought it was fantastic.

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Jeff Wise is a New York-based science writer and author of Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger.

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