Posted on 05/20/2009 6:32:29 AM PDT by Pontiac
College students, of course, have been using stimulants for years: They take such things as modafinil, Adderall, and Ritalin (euphemistically known on campuses as "vitamin R") to enhance their memories for exams or to stay up all night and press out a term paper. By one estimate, at least 10 percent of American college students use prescription drugs as study aids.
Now the general adult population is turning to the pills, too – often illegally – to boost productivity and enhance their mental prowess on the job. Some experts laud the development: They think it's time to consider making the stimulants legal for brain-boosting functions.
Ultimately, it raises the most fundamental questions about identity and what it means to be human: Are we the sum of our experiences or the sum of our pills? As Carl Elliott writes in his book, "Better than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream": "Today, enhancement technologies are not just instruments for self-improvement, or even self-transformation – they are tools for working on the soul."
But for some, a caution light goes on when we're changing the way the brain works, particularly when so little is known about it. "Not only do we not have a model for how our brains do complex tasks, we can't even imagine one," Dr. Karl Deisseroth, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, told Wired magazine earlier this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
But antidotal evidence suggest that there is a fine line between genius and insanity. Perhaps overuse of powerful cognitive enhancement drugs will cause a drastic increase in the incidence of mental disorders such as psychosis.
Aldous Huxley and His Brave New World. We are almost there.
I had thought about the famous quote when I was reading this. “A what brave new world that have such people in it.”
Finally, viagra for the brain.
Laws are written by and for people with their own interest and agendas in mind.
You there for get a crazy quilt of laws that often contradict each other and make little sense.
After all look at Obama’s CAFA standards. On one hand he supposedly is trying to save the Auto industry but with the CAFA standards he is putting another nail in its coffin. He is doing this because he is trying to satisfy two opposing interest groups that both are Democratic Party heavy weights.
So if your brain swells up for more than four hours; see your doctor immediately.
Sorry. Have to laugh. How terrible to have to spend a few hours stealing material from the internet and then having your PC format all into a blemishless paper. Those of us a little older knew what a term paper meant. Weeks in the libarary, taking notes on paper, then having to create the paper, then having to type it on a typewriter using carbon paper for the second copy, then having to use white-out on each typing mistake (both copies), letting it dry, and continuing. Having to retype entire pages when rewording made it impossible to use the page you'd already typed. THAT was how a term paper was done.
Actually the professors have gotten tech savvy too. They have software now to flag the internet plagiarist.
We also permit the widesale use of products that are known to impair cognition and reaction.
There are some who’ve said that using “brain pills” on tests is “cheating” (I guess like steroids) although you must be able to still do the work.
And I never hear any investigations into the use of steroids and caffine abuse by police officers. Both lead to edginess and fits of rage. We pay for the results of ‘roid rage.
For George Costanza, it was when his girlfriend had mono and he didn't have sex for awhile. He started using the rest of his brain...
Been using smart drugs since 1979. Hydergine is my favorite since it permanently raises IQ, has extensive safety testing in humans, and makes lab rats live 16% longer. Centrophenoxine is good too with life extension side effects. Overall, I picked up 10 IQ points. In one test of general knowledge, the doctor said I had the first perfect score she had ever seen.
Negative experiences include Eldepryl (made me over-confident), piracetam (spaced out), and too much ginkgo (makes you depressed). Diapid was an incredible memory enhancer, but I learned that it can cause cardiac arrest!
I don’t think giving Ritalin to kids is such a good idea.
As long as you are careful, do plenty of research, and remember the risks, smart drugs are simply another technological benefit of modern medecine. If we can improve on our genetics, why not?
I tried Centrophenoxine and Vinpocetine, I couldn’t really notice any difference, though other people swear by them.
Actually mental illness and intelligence have a negative correlation and not, as you suggest, a positive one.
By that I mean that several people considered to be geniuses have lapsed in to mental disorder. Genius being a rare commodity a few amongst a very few would be significant.
Mathematics genius John Forbes Nash Jr. lapsed in to schizophrenia.
Theodore John Kaczynski known as the Unabomber was considered by many to be a mathematical genius. A court-appointed psychiatrist diagnosed Kaczynski as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
I note that you are a retired research physiologist so I won’t belabor the point but I did mention there being a fine line between genius and insanity and not intelligence, if one looks at the bell curve of intelligence, genius being at the furthest end of the intelligence scale where the curve approaches the X axis.
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