Episode 106: No Mnemonics Detected but at Least We Have Jones — Johnny Mnemonic (1995) with Celeste Pilegard

About this episode

Alex and Celeste Pilegard discuss the film Johnny Mnemonic and its themes related to memory and technology.

Join Alex and Celeste Pilegard as they discuss the first of two Keanu Reeves dystopian cyberpunk future films, Johnny Mnemonic (1995). The film was directed by Robert Longo and he quit filmmaking after this one. A film having to do with storing other people's memories in your head while others suffer from a debilitating disease caused by electronics, while set in 2021... you have to wonder if the author of the short story, William Gibson, was some sort of soothsayer! The pair discusses the interesting memory portrayals and their relation to scientists' current understanding of memory, as well as the recent introduction of generative AI and its effects of cognition. Nerve Attenuation Syndrome is still a bit far-fetched, though and reminds us all of class struggle rather than literal 5G causing COVID. Also, check out Celeste's Cognitive Psychology OER textbook (Cognitive Foundations) in Second Edition! Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), or Threads/Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you! Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on…

People in this episode

Host: Alex

Guest: Celeste Pilegard

Topics covered

• dystopian films
• cyberpunk
• memory
• cognition
• generative AI
• class struggle

Keywords

• Johnny Mnemonic
• Keanu Reeves
• memory portrayal
• cognitive psychology
• generative AI
• Nerve Attenuation Syndrome
• dystopian future

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cognitive Foundations, cinemapsychpod, half.cool, Paypal

Books & works: Johnny Mnemonic

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