Charles Warner: Star Trek: J.J. Abrams Is a Neuroscientist

"Start Trek: The Future Begins" conceived and stunningly directed by J.J. Abrams and written by Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman is an appropriate, much-needed myth for a new 21st century generation that brilliantly weaves the latest discoveries of neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics into the story. For centuries Grimm's fairy tales hid moral messages in simple stories that told children how to make decisions about life. Twentieth century children needed the more engaging medium of film to hold their ever more diverted attention, but the same messages were still being transmitted about how to make decisions - be kind to little people, don't kill animals, don't lie, don't be mean to your step-siblings, don't fall for a wolf's sweet talking, etc. Ever since Plato, the Greeks, the Romans, and Middle Age religious institutions, the prevailing wisdom was that the mind was divided in two - the rational mind and the emotional mind - and that children had to be taught to use their reason ... (link)