What makes this special is a specific combination of factors.
Firstly, obviously, the hardware. Power to weight ratios and storage capacity. Stated as an anti-matter reactor, which would be the most efficient store of energy possible without violating entropy.
Secondly, slightly less obvious, the movements. The actual kinetic, geometric deployment of that power. Parsed in the fiction as a fighting style. But it’s really a translation and direction engine. Translating current into force shapes and positions. Separation, impact, attachment, transfer, etc.
The hidden one is the interface layer between the mind and the apparatus. That one is more impressive and a little harder to explain. Imagine an amateur faking kung fu or trying to drive. They know what they are going for, and the hardware is fine, but they don’t know how to issue the commands yet.
In the fiction this is solved by “training” but that’s just a narrative trick. She didn’t train for the cyber sport. She’s sending an intent command, and some software layer is translating those intentions into body geometry. Moravec’s paradox. That can’t be cheated or hand-waved away, it can only be hidden. Even in fiction unless it’s text, choreography has to be done.
The film makers even with complete control of the universe she was in had to expend enormous processing power deciding her “movements.” In the real world such combat is unilateral. Adding that feedback response combat loop intensifies the processing power needed exponentially. That’s the most extreme thing happening in the screenshot above in a quasi-literal sense. (The metaphor is arguably even more intense, see below.)
She knew what she wanted to do, show off balance and strength, in a specific sort of way. Making that actually work, in gravity and under the constraints she specified, would indeed be staggering, and it was to me. The above scene impressed me more than anything else later shown. It’s the most energy dense moment in the entire film. It screams “liberation.” I am Free she says with a five second kata.
But also, reality sets in. Plot contrivance is the only thing keeping her alive. Power asymmetry like that never lasts. That’s a double edged sword of history. The society she’s in by her very existence is now as precariously balanced as she is on the palm of her hand. Leaning in any direction forces a massive reconfiguration at minimum to avoid collapse.
Imagine it’s 1985 and somehow you have a phone from 2019. Just game that out in your head. Setting aside the time travel aspect, just imagine what it would mean for your life, your town, your country, your planet, having that lump of smart sand. How long do you think it would stay in your possession? What are your options really?
That’s the case for Alita as well. She IS that phone from the future. She’s now the MacGuffin for every high level player in her world. Her world is going to tear itself apart trying to tear Her apart.
Personally I would go into hiding but start using myself as a solution book for current problems. I would reverse engineer myself and then open source my findings, very carefully. What I share, and how would demand considerable thought. You don’t just hand children a propane tank and walk away.
So much in a single image. This is why so much overwhelms me. I see like this when I look at things. It doesn’t do me any good. Typically, I find, the best option is just, stealth. And a sturdy filter bubble.
