I know this is a bit late for write this up, but i just had this sudden urge. Yes, i know many people consider Lucy (2014) as somehow another average movie. I did read some reviews that said about how unrealistic and the most catching phrase in those comments is “why’s when her brain capacity’s get higher, she’s just becoming dumber”. Also there is some comments about the missing part of the story, that she suddenly able to do something etcetera etcetera. Oh sorry if i did gave you some spoilers, but trust me, i think this wasn’t that heavy for a spoilers. Well, can’t guarantee this post didn’t cost you some sneak peek at the movie, continue at your own risk : ) Somehow i just want to write this as a biologist. I know i am not that genius at this, but at least i think i had this logic and correct me if i am wrong. I am writing this in my point of view as biologist.
First of all, this movie is about a woman named Lucy (oh the irony, since this is the name of our ancestor, the first woman in the world by tracing human evolutionary) that somehow got this stimulating drugs and somehow her brain capacity increased. Yes, i agree with people that said the debunked myth of human brain capacity usage. In fact, i myself doubting about the 10% number. Although i haven’t looked up some journals about it, the myth pretty much off because i don’t think it’s possible to find the exact 100% number scale since even current research even using fMRI has not finished in detailing the human brain function. But putting aside of this myth, i did agreed that we has not fully used our brain capacity.
A friend of mine, whom i watched this movie together, said that it is impossible for her to be able to read the x-ray of patient. Although somehow i believe, that x-ray is about looking at contrast and comparing to the normal one. In Lucy’s case, i am convinced that by increasing her brain capacity, her eyes will get sharper and identifying the contrast is a piece of cake. Try to read some of it at cone and rod photoreceptors and magno and parvocellular processing system in human occipital lobe. If you haven’t got why, it was said that the drug she administered to was some kind of drug that in naturally small doses can be used by babies to help them forming the bones (which is a process that took up a big energy in changing the materials into a solid state) and i think in that kind of dose, it’s not strange for her to be able to “rewire” her brain network, henceforth, her photoreceptors.
Continuing from the talk about her photoreceptors, which is a base of her ability to see the network in this world. The first thing about sight and our colour perception, the colour itself were not only the colours that composing the rainbow. It’s just that we only capable to decipher the colours on rainbow wavelength. We did know that the wavelength are that lengthy. Technically speaking we perceive colours and vision because our photoreceptors only able to “decipher” the photons with visible light’s wavelength. In Lucy’s case, hypothetically writing, either the first part is that her photoreceptors ability is enhanced, or her brain processing or those image deciphering ability is enhanced. For the second hypothesis, indirectly concluded that our photoreceptors are good by itself, but our brain processing capability is suppressed. The metaphor is like having a phone with good lenses and great image processing programs. Either way, it still makes sense about her being able to see things that different from our vision. From that thought i kind of getting a vibe that people who able see those ghost can be grouped together in this manner.
Then what about her controlling the gravity and magnetic field etcetera? I think this one is more to a physics principle. But, our body is capable of producing electrics right? I think it’s more to that aspect, but in advanced way. But in biologically speaking, this also using a lot of energy to be done. For instance, having too much thought is tiring right? What about thinking so much so that your brain producing a lot of electricity? For instance our brain voltage is about 70-80 mv (by EEG recording) and the electricity on the electric plug is 110V right? Just count it by yourself about how much energy she needs in order to manipulate energy and force field (this is also the base of the answer for “why she didn’t throw the yakuza at the last point?” is because it’s tiring and at that time, she needs to focus to convert her complex thought into something to be able to be deciphered by someone more stupid than you).
Talking about use of energy, this topic went to the part where she became dust at the airplane’s lavatory. Why she became dust? It come like this, where do you think our energy come from? Yes we know it’s from food, but the exact thing to say that it came from cellular respiration (yup, the glycolysis till the electron transfer). Do you know the inevitable product from cellular respiration beside ATP (the technical word of energy)? It’s a free radical from oxidative stresses. This free radicals has a role in destroying your DNA. It can affect many things and the worst case, it makes irreversible changes in your DNA structure (or in another word, a small mutation that change your base order) and makes your cells cannot maintain the protein production thus becoming a kind of depraved. At this point, our cells have the DNA repair mechanism, but in normal case, even DNA repair cannot repair our DNA 100%. In Lucy’s case, which needs more energy than us and does metabolism higher than us, this damage is inevitable. This is also the reason why she said she doesn’t had time much longer.
The time she doesn’t had much longer, is connected with age. Some research said that age, was about the protein telomerase and telomere that protect out DNA’s edge. Older people had less quantities of those, which tell us about the process of ageing. This is what happened normally. But in Lucy’s case, everything was happened so rapid. Either her DNA is being degraded more than she can repair it or she just extensively increasing her metabolic rate at that time so he can compromise her lack of energy to do the activities. An extensive process of DNA damage is apoptotic. When cells happen to be having too much damage, it will cast a signal to self destruct and became an apoptotic body. This apoptotic body will be phagocytosis-ed . The apoptotic body itself, was in shape of dust, a speck of dust. It just make sense to me that when she’s going through a lot of metabolic changes, she became dust in the end.
But then she had the drugs again then she became intact again. This is the same reason as why she can had her brain restructured. Although something amiss for me is that where does she get the energy and the materials for her to make up for her body? Let’s just leave this at that haha. This is also the reason why at the end she just disappear. But why she became something like god? In the midst of the movie Lucy did said this “Dying? We don’t die. We just change ourselves into something else” or something like that. This statement indicate about what Lucy is becoming. She was transcended into something else. The answer in this topic lies in the basic knowledge of alchemy, that people consist of body, soul, and mind. It seems like when she had her 100%, she realize how to manipulate many things and it was being passed on with her soul. But this is more to science fiction and baseless accusation. Let’s just leave this at that also.
Well, i think it’s pretty much cover them all. Oh i forgot the part when she asked a surgeon to remove the drugs from her. Yes i know she didn’t feel any pain. But if you got the power, will you cut yourself open? I won’t, it’s just felt so wrong. In the end, in my opinion, this movie is just realistic. When you had this kind of power, will you thought about conquering the world? Because when you get the grasps of the power of knowledge, you just won’t thought that. You will be devastated by knowing what is the purpose of your life. It’s philosophical yet the basic of living. I think Lucy is the realistic version of Xavier in X-Men and other heroes. She didn’t try to save the world. She just trying to leave something in this world, as a remainder of herself that she did exist. Well, i think that’s all. Have fun guys :)
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