Even More Changes

I love talking to people about idea. It's so much nicer than debating with myself.

After a discussion with my dad, aka Arthur C. Clark (you'd get the reference if you read an earlier post of mine), I think I answered the big question...how the hell would an experiment like this work? The answer, as my dad pointed out (I didn't even recognize it), is that humans learn and remember information much easier when they are children, which is why learning a language is much easier at an early age rather an adult attempting to learn a language. It also came to my attention that genetics are involved in an experiment like this. The trick is to make information instinct.

Here's another interesting thing. What if Corryn HAD to transfer this information because she's already dying? Corryn has no other choice but to do the experiment on her own daughter (she hasn't gotten clearance yet to do it on anything else but lab rats). After Wendy is born, she's about four years old, Corryn does the experiment. A year later, Corryn dies. Nikki raises Wendy and Wendy starts showing genius signs at five years old. At age 7, she's ready for college.

And now I'm finally ready to start writing.

Research

These are a few websites I found to help me figure some things out.

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=211017

This website deals with asking what if it's possible to connect two brains together and what would happen. It isn't exactly dealing with the experiment I'm using for my script, but it discusses NEUROPHYSICS. This is the type of science Dr. Berke in my script should know a lot about in order to be able to put together an experiment that sends information from one brain to another.

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=211017

This website discusses how our memory works, how the brain keeps our memories separate, and how we are able to access our memories. One of my questions is, if Corryn wants to send information she has stored in her memory, is it possible to do this WITHOUT sending her personal memories as well? If our brain keeps these memories separate, would she be able to choose which memories to send? This message board talks about a neuron sends information to another neuron, but it goes through branches of neurons before it hits it's target neuron that is supposed to receive the information. It also says, "Wasn't there some research that came out not long ago (maybe a year or two max) that showed that we don't "read" memories, we recall them by the brain recreating thoughts, feelings, emotions, smells etc we had at the time--And so in this way isn't analogous to "reading" a hard drive like a computer does?" If this is true, then maybe Corryn HAS to send her personal memories, because the way in which she remembers information could be the same way Wendy can then access it...by remembering how Corryn recalled information. Website goes into more depth on this idea on page 2...when we remember, we don't read the memories, we "do" them, meaning we relive them.

Something else I thought about today. She would have had to test this experiment many times before putting her daughter in the chair. I'm wondering how these past experiments have gone and what she learned. You can't ask a rat if it remembers personal experiences of another rat. You just transfer the information (a rat determines how to get from one part of the maze to another) to another rat that has never done the maze before (and this rat knows exactly how to get to the end of the maze in one shot).

Simple is Better

After the third time trying to explain to someone my script idea and getting the same confused reaction, I realized there's too much going on in this script. A sci-fi mixed with a sad dramatic drama isn't going to work. So here's how it's looking now.

I thought about what kind of person would use their daughter for an experiment with dangerous consequences. This person would have to be crazy, a mad scientist, which could actually work. I've been focusing so much on the story that I'm not paying enough attention to the characters, who could make or break this idea. I decided tell the story in a way that is more about the characters and less about the whole mind uploading process.

Research shows that long term memory (memories about the past and information we can remember) can all be found in the hippocampus), so the simple part of the story is that Corryn transfers her long term member to her daughter. As her daughter grows up, things begin to trigger these memories. When Wendy realizes her mother conducted the experiment, she becomes resentful, BUT there's more to the story than the experiment.

This story is really going to be about understanding. We think we know people all the time from our observations, but actually seeing what they see can change our opinions dramatically. Wendy is given this gift of seeing and feeling what Corryn saw and felt. Wendy can actually remember the emotional trauma Corryn underwent when her parents told her she was an embarrassment and weird. She learns why Corryn has no morals and why she pushes people away. This doesn't make Corryn a good person, but it allows Wendy to understand why she was the way she was by seeing life as Corryn saw it. This allows Wendy to make the decision to continue her mother's work, and when Wendy realizes Corryn's memories have completely taken over her mind, she stops everything and let's the experiment die. Wendy learns why Corryn has no morals, but that doesn't mean Wendy has to forget her own morals.

This experiment gives Wendy the chance to know her mom, and it has an emotional impact on Wendy when the memories begin to fade (in the same way a person forgets the image of their parents who have been dead for many years). In this version of the story, Wendy doesn't die. It's about learning and letting go without the added drama. Plain and simple, in a sci-fi way.

Fringe Team

I now have a team of biology/neuroscience/engineer majors on call for any questions I might have during the writing process. They've already been helpful with the outlining. They've been warned that I'm going to throw some pretty absurd questions their way, but they are prepared and excited to assist.

Changes

When I was thinking of how to answer the questions I asked earlier on this blog, I thought of something that would make things easier...and hopefully better.

If Dr. Corryn needed someone to transfer her information to, what if she used her daughter, Wendy, when she was maybe five-years-old. At a young age, Wendy wouldn't remember that the experiment happened (unless she really tried, I'm doing a lot of research on Memory). After Corryn dies from the experiment, her lab partner Ardon, who was against the idea but couldn't stop Corryn, gave Wendy to another family to take care of her. She grew up never knowing what happened to her, and no one knew that, even though it killed Corryn, the experiment actually worked...with some problems. Not only did Corryn transfer the knowlege in her brain, but she also transfered her memories. Now Wendy is fifteen. She has dreams about Corryn, Corryn's life and sometimes sees glimpses of the experiment. She has no idea why she's seeing these things and starts to believe she has the ability to see her past life. That doesn't explain, however, why she is so smart. Wendy has enough knowlege in her head to be the youngest physicist known to man. She's so intelligent that she makes her teachers at school look pathetic. Her teachers send her to Harvard because they believe she will receive an adequate education, and she meets 60 year old Ardon. Ardon looks familiar to her. And the mysteries unravel.

Now I just need to unfold the story in a way that is interesting and makes sense. I like having Corryn and Wendy's stories told simutaneously because it shows how both character end up on the same path towards one thing...the mind uploading experiment. Corryn decides to go ahead with the experiment at any cost, even putting her own daughter's life at risk. Wendy needs to make the same choice, but she has completely different motives. There's another way I can tell this story though. Kind of like Bourne Identity, where she can remember things as they happen and use the flashbacks of Corryn's life to mirror Wendy's life (Wendy walks into a familiar room and the flashback shows Corryn in that room conducting an experiment). I like the first idea better, but the second is still an option.

One of the things I need to think about now is...do I want the stakes to be even higher and have Wendy start to die? I have to do more research on the brain, but my explanation now would be that I don't think a person's brain could handle processing information from someone else's brain. Too much information at once. Problem: I want maybe 5-10 years between the time of the experiment and Wendy's life now, before the results of the experiment start to kill her. But if her brain could handle it at 5 years old and she's been able to grow up without a problem (besides maybe some headaches) then why would it all of a sudden start killing her now? Was she dying all this time? Why didn't it kill her instantly like it did with Corryn? I need some answers...or a different way to tell the story so it makes sense. Contemplate on this, I shall.

Remember (New Script)

I really have to think of a better title because "Remember" is just horrible. But there are more pressing things to think about, so a brilliant title will just have to wait.

I'm super excited to have finally thought of a decent science fiction idea that's possible to write (all of my other ideas will probably take years to build the worlds and research). However, I'm well aware that my idea for this script will not be easy. Some of the thoughts in my head now that I'm debating with are...

1. How does the scientist, Corryn, choose who she is going to "send" the information in her brain to, and how does it eventually end up in Wendy's brain?

2. How old should Wendy be at the beginning of the script? When does she start seeing these images of what she believes to be her past life? Does it happen all at once (Phenomenon) or has she been able to remember since she was a young child?

3. Is there a love interest? If Wendy can remember everything about Corryn's past, does she also feel a strong connection to Corryn's lover?

4. Does Wendy die in the script? I was thinking that if an experiment like this took place and everything from one brain was transferred to another, would Wendy's brain be able to handle it? Wendy now has the brain power to continue with the experiment, and maybe she can make it better. If it's killing her, she doesn't have a lot of time to do this. What if she successfully accomplishes what Corryn did but with the same results...killing someone else. Is it moral if it's done in the name of science? Corryn was the scientist, so her answer probably would have been yes, but Wendy is not a scientist. Does she still have that obligation to continue? Will all of Corryn's hard work be in vain and without purpose if Wendy dies without doing anything to further the experiment?

These are all of the questions I'm in the process of answering. I like that this story asks a question that many people still ask today. How far is too far? With stem cell research, is it moral to conduct an experiment in the name of science. Should morality even be an issue? If we didn't cut open dead bodies when people thought it was morally wrong to do so, none of our medical advances would have been possible. But this story also shows the history of these two girls. One chose her path, and the other has to live with it inside her head, literally. Wendy did not choose to have everything in Corryn's brain transfered into her own, and she certainly did not choose to die so young, but she does have decisions to make, and she has to make them very quickly.