South Bank
London SE1 9GY
UK
Armand Leroi, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Imperial College London, talks about some of the themes surrounding Tom Stoppard’s new play, The Hard Problem.
The Hard Problem is Tom Stoppard’s first play for the stage sinceRock ’n’ Roll in 2006, and his first for the National since his trilogy,The Coast of Utopia, 2002.
Above all don’t use the word good as though it meant something in evolutionary science.
Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brain-science institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness?
This is ‘the hard problem’ which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry.
Is the day coming when the computer and the fMRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask?
Meanwhile Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.