Past screening

Father of the Cyborgs

Directed by: David Burke
Runtime: 1hr 18min Year: 2021
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Details

Directed by: David Burke
Runtime: 1hr 18min Year: 2021
Country: Ireland
Topics: Science
Last Screened: Thu 14th Oct 2021

Exploring the ethics of self-experimentation and the prospect of a future where technology and human brains seamlessly combine, through the work of neuroscientist Dr Phil Kennedy.

Neurologist Phil Kennedy made global headlines in the late 90’s when, determined to unlock the mystery of communication for locked-in patients, he implanted wire electrodes in the brain of a paralysed man, and taught him to control a computer cursor with his mind. He was compared to Alexander Graham Bell and became famously known as ‘The Father of the Cyborgs’.

Decades later in 2014, frustrated by lack of funding and still driven to push forward with his research, Kennedy shocked the medical and scientific community by traveling to South America to have his own brain implanted with electrodes. Father of the Cyborgs is a fascinating insight into the life of the renegade and controversial neuroscientist.