Yesterday, for a bit of Xmas indulgence, I rewatched one of my favourite movies from the last couple of decades - Limitless (2011).

Bradley Cooper plays this shuffling New York loser, Eddie Morra, endlessly trying to start his big novel and failing, who through a chance encounter with his ex brother-in-law, takes a new cognitive enhancement drug and completely transforms every aspect of his life.

I love this movie. I just love watching the transformation that the protagonist undergoes as his brain is taken to full potential; how he comes to understand the reasons behind his constant failings and leaves them behind; how he literally rewires himself. And it’s not all dripping in success and positivity either. There’s a street-level, gritty side to the movie too - underworld goons on his back and mysterious side-effects of the drug that threaten to destroy him. Of course, it all turns out good in the end.

But, despite the visual power of witnessing Eddie’s rebirth as a new person, and the sense that “Hey, maybe that could happen to me too,” I think the movie also perpetuates a somewhat dubious trope - that all we need is to enhance our intelligence. That if only we could get our brain to function at 80% or 100%, instead of its reputed 20%, then we would leave our animalistic traits behind and just be successful and inspirational to others. I don’t think intelligence has much to do with this.

For a start, there are literally tens of millions of extremely intelligent people in the world. And yet they don’t seem to live like Eddie Morra. Mostly they try to just think their way through all the problems life sends them, rarely with much apparent success, and end up living disconnected lives purely in their heads. If they get success, it’s limited to strictly numbers in bank accounts. They rarely inspire.

I think we vastly overrate intelligence. For sure, it’s not a bad thing. But the power that ultimately transforms comes from self-awareness and also from our heart centre. As we get our heart more open, we begin to feel love, from the inside. As we become more self-aware, we begin to see clearly how we’re avoiding life and how we can do better. Neither of these facilities requires much intelligence.

Even if the movie’s fabled drug NZT-48 got released onto the market, I doubt the world would be transformed. In truth, the release of Ecstasy (MDMA), in Ibiza and Texas back in the early 80s, likely created more social transformation that any other drug, recreational or otherwise. For the simple reason that it gave the ordinary citizen an albeit temporary heart-opening experience.

AI is coming and we may soon be surrounded by online bots that are way more intelligent that we are. Whilst a little scary, I think this is good. We are obviously not cut out for running a huge thing like a planet and it’s fairly miraculous that we haven’t destroyed the world already. Let’s leave the thinking to the intelligent machines and get back to realising our real potential - through self-awareness and the heart.

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