10 TV Shows That Got Science Completely Wrong
2. The Brain Percentage Theory - Limitless
Basing a movie and then a spinoff show around the infamous theory that we only use around 10% of our brains is something of an uphill battle, science-wise, due to the small, itty bitty, near-inconsequential detail that THAT IS NOT HOW ANY OF THAT WORKS!
If you touch your fingers together, that's using 10% of your brain. The theory came from some hack writer named Lowell Thomas in 1936 when he wrote a foreword in the famous book How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
The study of the brain is one of the most complex fields in all of science, so it's only natural that a lot of people would assume there's infinitely more to the brain than we have discovered thus far. But as far as we know there simply isn't. At least, nothing that is shown in Limitless.
Would've saved you a lot of mockery if you just said the pill was magic, Limitless.