We had to get to Lucy at some point. In my first review of Lucy I was quite critical of the movie because it pretty much not only ignores existing neuroscience in favour of fantasy, it tries to dress itself up as good science. Luc Besson goes so far as to say he consulted top […]
We had to get to Lucy at some point.
In my first review of Lucy I was quite critical of the movie because it pretty much not only ignores existing neuroscience in favour of fantasy, it tries to dress itself up as good science.
Luc Besson goes so far as to say he consulted top neuroscientists in forming his ideas. *Bullshit* or rather *Quacks*.
None the less it is in fantasy that we often feel safest to explore ideas that scare us. Transhumanism is scary. Loosing our humanity to something else (as we believe is inevitable) is scary. Hell Lucy is scary.
Yet there is an innocence to Lucy as she ascends to a higher plane that is compelling. She doesn’t herself really know what to do with what is happening to her, she is just going on instinct. As such, Lucy is the first of the Transhumanist characters who is at least accessible.
Luc Besson seems to believe that wonderful things lie on the other side of human potential. He may be right. The reality is though while a few will embrace that potential, many more will fear the change that comes with it. It’s here that Besson trips over. In his personal obsession with Lucy, he forgets to sell it to us. We are all just supposed to get it, you know like cosmic, wow man.
In the end Lucy becomes what she was all along – a phantasm.
He left the true heavy lifting, exploring what is on the other side to others. For Besson, “cosmic” speculation is enough.