Ang, Jeff Clarence L.

STS 10 M

180273 9 September 2019

A glance at the past shows how much science and technology have revolutionized our world

and how much we have evolved due to new knowledge and discoveries that have reshaped humanity.

When compared to the period of Lucy, the first human, we are conferred with how much humans have

evolved due to the advancements brought about by science and technology. However, Lucy presents us

with a reminder that while humans have been able to constantly push the boundaries of science, there

are still a lot left to be discovered and learned. While it may seem like humans have unearthed so much

in the fields of science and technology, humans are only at the surface of the infinite possibilities, and

the acquisition of knowledge in science and the advancements and innovation in technology are

processes which continue to develop through time. Lucy also reminds us that human beings themselves

are extremely powerful, and coupled with our advancements in science and technology, there are a lot

left to be achieved. However, the movie also portrays the implications of pushing beyond the boundaries

of humanity, along with the potential dangers of the misuse of human intelligence and science and

technology for power and control.

As humans become more technologically advanced, we become increasingly like Lucy in the

sense that we rely on technology to the point that we allow it to control so much of what we do. Due to

being overly reliant on technology, we become “automated” in a similar way to how Lucy increasingly

became “godlike” as she was able to control a larger percentage of her mind. In the movie, humans are

portrayed as very powerful species: Lucy was presented as an embodiment of power and control when

she was able to gain access to more than 10 percent of her mind; she gained access to a host of new

abilities which normal human beings do not have in telekinesis, mind-reading, among others. However,

the movie also showed the fall of Lucy upon reaching 100 percent control of her mind. While she was

able to gain ultimate control of time, space, and information, her humanity (in the form of her human

body) was ultimately destroyed.

This parallels with the idea that the overuse of human intelligence and science and technology

for power and control results to the destruction of human beings, existentially and morally. In the movie,

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Professor Norman stated that humans are not ready for knowledge because we are so driven by power

and profit, and our nature to seek and misuse knowledge would only lead to instability and chaos. Lucy

was able to overcome the limitations of a normal human being, but this ultimately lead to her downfall

because she could no longer control all the knowledge and control within her. This is essentially the

consequence of the premise in the movie of being able to access our full intellectual capacity and

speeding up evolution through the use of science. As Lucy gained more and more control of her full

intellectual capacity, she lost her control over her humanity and who she really was. This is seen in her

line in the movie where she said: “It’s like all things making us human fading away. It’s like the less

human I feel. All this knowledge about everything — quantum physics, applied mathematics, the

infinite capacity of a cell’s nucleus. They’re all exploding inside my brain. All this knowledge—I don’t

know what to do with it.” Ultimately, science and technology are powerful, and these would help

humanity only if used properly and placed in the right hands. When placed in the wrong hands and

utilized for the wrong intentions, technology can lead to chaos and the detriment of humanity, with a

classic example being technological weapons being utilized for war and other misguided purposes.

Lucy’s ethics and morality were also compromised when she was able to reach her full

intellectual capacity. In the hospital scene, she went straight to immediately killing a patient. According

to Lucy, she did so because the patient was going to die anyways. This is the case of Lucy becoming

more rational than relational as a result of her being able to go beyond the boundaries of the human

mind. In the movie, Lucy saw the others as thinly formed outlines; her gradual transformation to a “god”

(and in the process become less human) resulted to her becoming less capable of forming genuine

connections with other humans. This is one of the disadvantages in the advancement of science and

technology which are so reliant on reason or being so rationale. Throughout the evolution of mankind,

humans evolved to be rational and have real life interaction with one another; being too fixated on

reason neglects emotion, which results to certain cases such as Lucy neglecting ethics and morals in her

decisions.

The end of the movie wherein Lucy goes through the different stages of humanity reflects how

science is a continuous process of knowledge being passed on from one generation to the next.

Knowledge is passed on through time and, as Professor Norman stated, “it’s up for humans to push

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theories and laws, and go from evolution to revolution.” When compared to the first human named

Lucy, human beings in the contemporary world have evolved so much. Our developments can be caused

due to our need to adapt to our surrounding environments (for survival), or in other situations, we seek

technological developments simply because it’s part of our nature to seek and desire knowledge.