The Limitless

Human beings have been fascinated and yet puzzled about our brain’s capacity. Especially mysterious is the fact that one can improve his cognitive abilities by reading, solving problems and improving his education in general. The movie “Limitless” was released in 2011, and was directed by Neil Burger and starring Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro and Abbie Cornish. In this movie, albeit a speculative, sneak peak on what an average human being can do when he uses nearly entire potential of his brain. An experimental drug in the form of a small pill all what it takes to turbo -charge your brain and access 100% of its capacity. The main character, Bradley Cooper, discovers that in a short period of time after ingesting a drug he unlocks mysterious sides of his brain capacity as he becomes tenfold smarter, faster and more confident. The movie colorfully depicts something which perhaps most of us dream and wish to have—extreme intellect, social skills and ability to take any opportunity and reap its results. The character in the movie, writer Eddie Morra gets exactly that. As he discovers effects of the pill, a previously struggling writer finishes a book in 4 days, which gets published and becomes a success. Furthermore, he manages to invest several thousand dollars in stock market and make two millions with no prior experience of doing such things.
The character knows no boundaries, nothing is impossible for him as he continues to move forward pushing the limits of what can be done with a great intelligence. As soon as Eddie takes the pill, his emotional, cognitive and physical functioning would improve by multiple times. In psychology, these skills refer to multiple intelligences. It is not a challenge for him to learn a language (relates to linguistic intelligence) in a manner of hours or being a center of a party and making friends (relates to interpersonal intelligence). With such abilities he ends up working in a very influential investment firm. Whenever he is in trouble and seeks solution for one, his abnormal cognitive abilities allow him to find a path out, the one which nobody else sees. The pill also affected his kinesthetic abilities (relates to bodily-kinesthetic intelligence). A group of people attack him in the subway. The character, without realizing starts applying martial arts techniques. As it turns out his brain replicated moves he saw in movies before. Just as one may wonder, there is a price for this extraordinary ability. The pills were the source of strength and weakness since they possessed terrible side effects. If character missed his pill he would be in an agonizing pain, which would eventually kill him unless he manages to take another one. Facing near death experiences, the character learns more about himself and the power of the drug. After watching a movie I have changed my perspective on our abilities to exploit our brain’s capacity. In the movie, the main character becomes restless because he sees and hears everything. There is little to no background information, which he misses. Admittedly, it provides a great ability to know about your environment. At the same time it must be hard to have a normal life. Maybe there is a reason why we capped at 10-15% of out brain capacity. As if the nature by design chosen for us to limit our conscious abilities so we can spend time on other things in life and enjoy our short stay here.