Professor Anil Seth features as one of nine world-renowned experts sharing ideas in a new Vice Media documentary.
Professor of Cognitive & Computational Neuroscience, Anil Seth, features as one of nine scientists sharing ideas in a new Vice Media documentary which brings together world-renowned experts in a range of disciplines from physics to psychology.
The Most Unknown, produced in cooperation with renowned film director Werner Herzog, sends nine scientists to extraordinary parts of the world to uncover unexpected answers to some of humanity’s biggest questions including how life began, and what is time, and how consciousness happens.
Professor Seth, co-director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, is a world-leading expert who has spent the past two decades on ground-breaking research trying to unravel the mystery of consciousness.
He said: “When I first heard about The Most Unknown I thought it was a bit crazy, but when I understood what they were trying to do I was thrilled to be involved. Having the chance to discuss our work with other scientists from very different fields was challenging and rewarding, and certainly led me to think about my own research in new ways.
"The strangest part was being filmed continuously for days at a time - and of course a lot of the footage never made the final cut. My favourite experience was climbing all over the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, learning about the search for extraterrestrial life.”
The film was directed by Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Ian Cheney, who brought together researchers from diverse backgrounds for the first time and dropped them into new, immersive field work they previously hadn’t tackled.
The 85 minute documentary was filmed at locations across the globe including at microbe-rich hot springs in the American West; mountaintop telescopes on Hawaii; deep-sea methane vents in the Pacific; a monkey island in Puerto Rico as well as at the University of Sussex and on the British Airways i360 in Brighton and Hove, and has received good reviews in a range of international publications such as The New York Times and Film Journal.
It was released in cinemas in a host of US cities earlier this year and is now available exclusively on Netflix, in 25 languages, for the next two weeks before also being released on the platforms of its producer, Motherboard.