How could overclocking the human body actually weaken my abilities?

Question

My name is Dio Brando, and I am the embodiment of masculinity. As the epitome of physical male perfection, I am stronger, faster, sexier, more intelligent, and frankly just better than you in every possible way you can imagine. I became this way through my mastery of Hamon, the life energy that flows through the human body. Being able to access Hamon allows the individual to overclock their body and increase performance, similar to overclocking a computer's CPU and memory.

Hamon can be used in 3 ways:

1. Multiply the body's physical strength by double, triple, or quadruple times.

2. Increase the body's speed, acceleration, and reaction time.

3. Harden the magnetic field surrounding the body to create a defensive barrier. It allows for light protection from concussive force

   A person can sustain one of these modes for as long as they are able. An experienced practitioner will be able to last for 2 - 3 minutes, while a master like myself can go for 5 minutes at a time. After the time limit, a period of cool down occurs until it can be used again. The more it is used, the more "debt" the person owes, extending the cool down period.

Being a superior alpha male myself, I have decided to use all 3 of these modes at once. Logically, doing this would increase and push my abilities to the maximum, while forcing me to endure a long cool down period before reuse. However, I have discovered that doing this actually makes my abilities weaker overall, and has caused significant damage to my own body. Why would this be the case?

Answer 1

Everytime you overclock your body it heats up, like a computer would.

When computers do it, we call it overclocking. But when you do it, it's called fever.

Go over 39 or 40C internal temp... And the proteins you are made of are damaged. All throughout the body.

You may be doing that faster than your body can heal.

Answer 2

Some men look macho by growing a magnificent moustache. Others by wearing aviators. Some do it by toning their biceps until they gleam in the morning sunlight and then wear nothing but khaki cargo pants.

If you do all three at once you look like an 80s pornstar.

The real issue here is trying too hard, which as we all know takes you out of looking epic and manly and into just looking plain daft. Real masters of Hamon know that to try too hard is to not be manly. Real men don’t try. They simply are.

PS: True masters of macho have elevated the art to such a point that they become more manly by doing things lesser beings would deem feminine. It’s hard to argue a man with stubble on his stubble is less manly for knitting pink sweaters for babies.

Answer 3

In summary your main proposed Hamon power boils down to greater efficiency of energy extraction from available resources (oxidation of food) combined with greater efficiency of energy harnessing at the cellular level (ATP-mitochondria etc) and finally an accelerated basal metabolic rate.

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You run out of cellular fuel very quickly that way - your body's available glucose stores get exhausted almost instantly; metabolising glycogen into glucose takes time (no matter how much your metabolic rates are amped up this process is slow) and you will run out of glycogen in the liver pretty darn quickly too.

Once you've passed through stores of glucose and glycogen, it's your muscle-mass which gets metabolised to support the current need - so you quickly start to eat your best assets: skeletal muscles. Once you pass beyond a critical point, you also start to degrade the myelin sheaths of your nerves... so you can expect peroneal nerve neuropathy, sciatica, and all kinds of fun neuropathic dysfunctions of your extremities if you keep pushing that hard.

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I'm choosing not to address the "hardening of the magnetic field around the body" part of this question for two reasons:

1. IMHO it's balderdash.
2. Even were it in other senses reasonable, such a field wouldn't "provide for light protection from concussive force" unless the impending impactor was formed from a magnetically-influenced material (ferromagnetic or other) and so wouldn't stop a fist, knee, foot, club, baseball bat etc.; further, to be strong enough a field to actually make a noticeable difference on even a solid iron bar, your body would need to be putting out a 2+ Tesla magnetic field - in other words, like an MRI. The metabolic energy that would take would kill you instantly.

That said - hope this helps!

Answer 4

Let's assume that Hamon is basically an extension of the male psyche. The male and female mind differ mainly in how we focus on things. Men are generally better at focusing in on one thing: deeply, intensely, and with unwavering attention. The female mind is better at focusing on many thing simultaneously, or in rapid sequence. Simultaneous focus is in of itself a characteristic of the female psyche and therefore contrary to the mentality required to focus your masculine side. Simply by splitting your focus, you alienate the aspect of your mind required to summon any of these powers.

As a side note, the human brain does not like being overclocked, it can either perform a highly focused task with part of itself, or low intensity stuff across the board. When a human brain does both at the same time, you experience a seizure which can lead to various forms of paralysis, brain-damage, or even death. So, I'd imagine there would be people who are double-dominant and able to technically push forth multiple abilities, but doing so would mean that any second you could overload your entire nervous system which in a best case scenario would feel like getting hit with a taser.

Answer 5

Interesting, interesting.

Well the reason for this may come down to one or more of several reasons. I'm going to assume that these powers come from some form of metabolic control, as that would seem to explain powers 1 and 2 (3 is a bit hit-or-miss, as 'magnetic fields' would not prevent a punch, however excessive adrenaline would prevent the sensation of pain from a punch).

1. Sheer overexertion.

   It is not uncommon for someone to simply ask too much of their body, it's possible that your muscles, brain and body simply cannot dial the mitochondria up that high, and by pushing too hard, the mitochondria immediately burn through all available oxygen, begin the process of anaerobic respiration (already significantly dropping the efficiency of energy conversion), which results in your cells being flooded with lactic acid, as well as running out of glucose to respire with. This would end up in the cells effectively becoming non-functional, and in extreme cases massive cell death could occur.

This would explain the 'recharge time' as the lactic acid is removed and glucose+oxygen are sent to the cell, and if cell death occurs then the cells themselves need to be regenerated.

2. Running out of fuel.

   If somehow your mitochondria don't immediately burn through all of their oxygen and drown themselves in lactic acid, an issue could be that your body simply cannot supply enough glucose to the cells to maintain respiration, or could totally run out of glucose alltogether, which means fat supplies will immediately be pillaged. If someone of your physique was particularly lean, then said fat storages would be insufficient to power that power level for any real length of time.

This would also explain 'recharge time' however in this situation it would be more reliant on you stuffing your face until you have enough glucose, and your heart going overdrive to get blood to your cells.

3. Too damn hot!

   Respiring cells tend to produce a fair amount of heat, and if you happen to be a warm-blooded mammalian like the rest of the human race, this means that too much respiring means too much heat, which would usually be compensated for by sweat, however the thermal conductivity of flesh can only go so far, and if your mitochondria get too hot they may simply cease to function. If when trying to activate all three you suddenly go very red, you begin to literally gush sweat and you start steaming then this will be your issue.

Answer 6

I'm afraid even you, Mr. Brando, are subject to the constraints of human multi-tasking. Maintaining any single capability of Hamon is similar to holding a number in your mind; it requires focus even if it's a tiny amount. With practice, you have been able to use Hamon longer, or with more power, but both of those require the equivalent of holding an even longer digit within your mind.

As you attempt to multitask, more errors occur naturally because each specific task doesn't have the dedication needed to perform optimally. In technology, this would be like a network bandwidth being overloaded - but instead of lag that would cause you to completely lose control, it's more like it stops sending as much throughput - which can cause damage as necessary tiny adjustments in chemicals and heat are skipped.

example of focus capacity: Take a random 6-digit number (from something like: https://www.google.com/search?q=random+number) and hold it in your mind. Note that holding it is different from memorizing and later remembering it. Can you hold two of these numbers in your head? Three?

Now try with 3-digit numbers. It should be much easier. You can change the amount of digits you want to try based on your ability, but ultimately you shouldn't be able to hold 3 numbers in your mind as well as you can hold 1 number.

Answer 7

As with any conduit of energy, and this Hamon is a form of energy, it can only handle so much. As you harness and use this energy, the conduit in which it flows through, your body, begins to feel the effects. These effects could be over heating, over exhaustion, minor biological damage for one reason or another.

It can also cause a strain on ones nervous system as you must concentrate on the task of drawing up, transferring and utilizing the energy in different ways. This can be very tasking for an individual, especially one that is lacking in mental capacity.

Another thing to think of, the body could only handle so much energy passing through it. It could be a hard limit in which no matter how hard you try, you can only get so much, therefore you must distribute the limited resource to what ever action you want. Or this can be a soft limitation, in which you can "overclock" this overclock, but it will come at a price to your body and diminishing of other bodily functions.

Answer 8

The basis of Hamon is breathing. To use all three effects at the same time, you need to breath faster. This is called hyperventilation. And while it can be useful if your oxygen levels are low, extended hyperventilation can cause:

• Shortness of breath, or feeling that you can’t get enough air
• A faster than normal heartbeat
• Feeling faint, dizzy, or lightheaded
• Pain or tightness in your chest
• A numb, tingly feeling in your hands or feet

Not a good idea.

Or maybe, the energy itself is just poisonous. In small doses, it is fine. But in large amounts, the toxicity causes weakness, disorientation and eventually death.

Answer 9

For your first feat, this is rather easy as the human body already has this mechanic. Ever hear of a story where a mother is able to lift a large weight, like a car, in order to save her baby? Or a man who's able to lift a heavy load that is pinning him in a burning building? There's actual science behind that. It basically boils down to the human body is capable of forces greater than average displays of strength or speed that they display under no stress. This is basically the fight or flight response triggering an adrenaline surge that allows them to lift better than their personal best in a gym because they are specifically in danger... the reason we don't run at these levels ordinarily is because the wear and tear on a human body constantly running at above peak would tear the body apart and cause more harm. In short emergency bursts, it can get you out of a tight spot, and if harm is caused, it's usually less than the harm from not doing it. This also works for speed, reaction time, and acceleration too.

Another factor in this is that, once the danger is passed, you stop producing excess adrenaline which cause a sort of shock to hit you as now that the danger has passed and you're no longer focused on saving your own life, the realization that you were in a state where you had to save your own life can be debilitating in and of itself. Not to mention, you might be extremely hungry or tired because that energy had to come from somewhere.

As for the magnetic field, that's not natural... but the human body does need iron and iron deficiencies are characterized by fatigue symptoms. Perhaps the use of this field cause the iron in your body to be disrupted and cease to get to proper places, causing a fatigue feeling. Your blood is also iron based, so it could cause lightheaddedness if prolonged use as the blood is not getting to your brain under ordinary forces or even to cause vessels to rupture causing you too have random nose bleeds that indicate imminent fainting.

Answer 10

Humans can already do everything on the list except the defense field without the need to resort to magic, and it has pretty hefty drawbacks.

Its called adrenaline response or the flight or fight response. You react faster, are stronger and faster, ignore pain, and the entire time you are doing damage to your body. Your brain limits what you can do to what your tissues can handle without damage not the maximum they can perform. Vertebrates who are kept in the this stress response suffer a multitude of problems as they break their bones, muscles and tendons, damage their organs, exhaust their neurotransmitters, their body basically shows the results of continual abuse, almost every system is affected negatively in the long run. Even the immune system is degraded.

Basically your character can voluntarily enter nad maintain this state (which may be possible) but they suffer all the side effects as well. The only thing you have to add is that the magic defensive field can only be used during the adrenaline response and you have your answer.

Answer 11

Rhabdomyolysis

Rhabdomyolysis is a condition in which a large amount of skeletal muscle is damaged and, as a result, releases proteins into the bloodstream. As myoglobin circulates in the blood, it clogs up the kidney tubules and can cause damage to the kidneys. If the affected muscle swells, it can also impair blood supply to the affected area, causing muscle damage. So, it very well could be that Dio exerting himself as much as he does causes rhabdomyolysis and possibly permanent destruction of muscle cells along with a host of other medical issues.