The Isolation of Two Minds

The game we played in class reminded me of a film, in this case the film is Moon, a film written and directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie's son) and starring Sam Rockwell. The film focuses on the isolation of the human mind; Rockwell is the only physical character present through the entire film (Kevin Spacey does do vocal work for the robot watching over him) and shows his slow mental deterioration over three years on a lunar mining facility. During class today, we were paired with one of our peers at random, and we waited through the rest of the intellectual battles for our turn in the Smart or Smarter ring of honor. Much of today's conflict came internally form the stress of who we would be facing off against as well as whether or not we believed ourselves capable of beating our opponents in a battle of wits. Moon plays out in much the same way. The protagonist, Sam, starts to suspect that the company he works for has hidden something from him and he starts a game of intellectual cat and mouse in order to try to find his perceived truth while still making his way home to his wife and young daughter. Now, a simple game of Smart or Smarter does not hold nearly as much weight as trying to get through space to get back to one's family; the consequences for both do not nearly come close either; if one loses the 'Smarter' title one only loses bonus points, while the consequence for Sam if he fails is certain death. I just find it funny how intense focus on one topic can do funny things to people, whether the effects come as hallucinations or mental deterioration (in Sam's case) or very in depth analysis of a sentence (in the AP English case). From a psychological standpoint the isolation of social creatures, such as humans, creates a unique mindset that can either create some of the most brilliant works a human mind can produce (just look at all the recluse authors like Salinger, Lovecraft, Dickinson, etc.) or completely destroy all traces of logic and sanity. Its a fine line we walk and, while the game today barely touched on it, watching others walk it can be one of the most fascinating things I've seen in a while.