The 10% Myth

A few months ago, I read Stephen King's Cell, his somewhat flawed take on the zombie genre.

Speaking in broad generalizations, once you get past the "grrr, argh, brains", zombie tales are allegorical in nature, whether it's consumerism, foreign policy, or the democratization of the media. Cell is no different. It takes the rather obvious premise of "cellphone users as zombies" and runs with it.

Overall, I think King did an OK job -- the zombies aren't really classic George Romero zombies; King injects enough of his own variations into the equation to keep you guessing. Sadly, the novel falls down when King tries to explain the cause and mechanics of the outbreak, and falls down hard. Technical plausibility has never been his strong suit. Given the story direction this was probably not possible, but I'd have preferred if he had left out most of the details completely.

One of those details is this: that humans only use 10% of their brain, and by extrapolation, that the other 90% is untapped potential just waiting to be unlocked. No one is sure exactly where this myth originated but there isn't any doubt that it's pretty widespread. It's most often used as evidence to advance claims that psychic powers are plausible.

I don't mind psychic abilities appearing in speculative fiction. Just figure out a different way of rationalizing it (assuming you bother to; it's not always necessary). Explicitly quoting the 10% myth breaks the suspension of disbelief--at least for me.

It's just not true.