So there is a new movie coming out called Lucy which concerns the effects of an extremely powerful cognitive enhancing drug (kinda like Limitless but taken to an extreme) The trailer is here if you're interested:

Anyway it got me thinking about cognitive enhancement, nootropics (smart drugs) and its potential applications, while nothing like what is portrayed in these films could ever occur it still has huge amounts of potential to improve lives. At the same time messing around with the brain can lead to horrific consequences, drug addicts brains are a good example so who knows what could happen if it turns out popping cognitive enhancement drugs daily has some long term negative effect. And then there is the ethics of it, is it fair to allow people to use drugs in order to perform better when there are others who haven't used them? And could you maintain the successes achieve while on these drugs if you ever went off them?

I was wondering what OT thought about the matter, is cognitive enhancement something worth pursuing or should we leave it alone?

I'm all for pursuing means to heal damaged brains and mental health, I'd much rather not mess with what makes people people. I mean, put it this way; what if the wrong person gets a massive leg up over the rest of humanity? History is full of extraordinary people who use their talents for decidely malignant means. Let's not turn that up to 11.

Can't watch the trailer now. On my phone so doing so would murder my data plan.

As for the general topic?
I see no issue with enhancing our minds. We aim for this all the time with therapy and education anyways. I'd draw the line though where it starts to become a kind of addiction or something with side effects may it be medical ones or more stuff like loss of empathy.

Then again, each adult should be able to make said choice for themself. While at the same time make sure those who choose not to for one reason or another such as bad side effects are not unable to get employed or something cause of itm

Dervish said
I'm all for pursuing means to heal damaged brains and mental health, I'd much rather not mess with what makes people people. I mean, put it this way; what if the wrong person gets a massive leg up over the rest of humanity? History is full of extraordinary people who use their talents for decidely malignant means. Let's not turn that up to 11.

An interesting point, although I'd assume if that situation ever occurred hopefully there would be many others in a similar position who would oppose them. I think the key with cognitive enhancement is to ensure it's for the benefit of everyone rather than a select few as otherwise problems like the one you brought up could occur.

As for healing versus enhancement, when it comes to enhancement as Magic Magnum said I think it's up to the individual to decide the level of risk they are willing to take, they should be aware they could potentially change themselves for better or worse and if they take that risk they need to be ready for the consequences good or bad. As for healing it's a similar situation except I suppose an individual has less to lose and more to gain compared to someone using those drugs for enhancement.

Magic Magnum said
Can't watch the trailer now. On my phone so doing so would murder my data plan.As for the general topic?I see no issue with enhancing our minds. We aim for this all the time with therapy and education anyways. I'd draw the line though where it starts to become a kind of addiction or something with side effects may it be medical ones or more stuff like loss of empathy.Then again, each adult should be able to make said choice for themself. While at the same time make sure those who choose not to for one reason or another such as bad side effects are not unable to get employed or something cause of itm

More or less agree with your points. Hopefully side effects and addiction are considered when developing these drugs, I doubt anyone would release an enhancement drug with serious risk of either of these eventualities. As for treatment of diseases however that might be harder to avoid, especially if a potentially dangerous drug is the only chance to cure or alleviate a disease. Either way like you said it's up to the individual to decide what level of risk to their bodies they can tolerate.

Heh... Ironically I think Star Trek portrayed the most realistic depiction of super humans. Ever heard of Khan? Genetically bred to be smarter, faster, stronger, and just better than the average human being... However, the same chemicals and attributes that accelerated growth, strength, and intelligence, also accentuated unwanted characteristics: Ambition, pride, cold logic. The more powerful Khan became physically, the less empathy he felt for his fellow man: After all, they were beneath him, intellectually, physically--in every way, beneath him, like an ant.

The auspicious part is, he didn't hate his fellow superhumans. He cared about them, but that didn't stop infighting from occurring between them, and in the historical depiction of Earth when they took over, their infighting led to the deaths of millions of the non-enhanced.

Increasing our biological capacity, intellectually or physically, also has the repercussion of enhancing the capability to do wrong as well as right. If you increase testosterone to make someone stronger, you also make them more aggressive. If you make someone more intellectually superior without increasing their empathy and sympathy, you make them sociopaths, but if you ramp up their empathy and sympathy, the rest of their emotions will follow as well, leading to extreme bipolar disorder instead.

This is not the kind of thing we squishy primates are really aptly evolved to handle. I'm sure there are good purposes for it, slight enhancements here or there, curing genetic diseases, eradicating vulnerabilities (like the pancreas), curing Alzheimer's , and so on. There are good purposes to this... But to straight up improve the human form in any way that could be construed as a real, serious improvement, you hit Khan. Even then, if we developed a society of minor improvements, muscle stimulus, achieving the perfect height and weight paradigms through genetics, etc, we hit a GATTACA future instead.

Oioioi. This whole business is depressing to think about. It's probably best to tackle it with the same kind of extreme care and caution that we do bio weapons... Because in the wrong hands, that's what this is: A Bioweapon.

EDIT

Basically, whether in pill format or genetics, messing with the human body is a very big shadow zone with a lot of potential problems. Leave alone the human brain. An organ we still don't understand all that well.

There's precedent that says it can work with very few side-effects -- coffee, basically, coffee is my whole justification, and I guess to a lesser extent nicotene (now that we can deliver it without carcinogens, at least as far as current research would indicate). There's precedent that says it can totally destroy you -- mescaline, shrooms, crack, take your destructive pick. The long and short of it is, very few chemical compounds are created equal, and biological processes are somewhat chaotic. Heck, we can't even all eat the same foods, on account of allergic reactions. I imagine some people will respond positively to some such drugs, depending on the drug, while others might be destroyed by it. So, speculation -- on a chemical level -- is pretty much a moot point.

Ethically speaking..... well that's up to each of us, isn't it? Responsible use could give -- not just our society, not just our species, but our whole planet could reap enormous benefits from something like this. Selfish or reckless use could ruin the world, or worse, your life. I don't think that's necessarily a reason to throw in the towel, and say "Screw it, we just won't look into this, it could turn into a monster movie," but obviously discovery is a perilous endeavor, and we should all operate with an understanding that certain knowledge, like the atom bomb, can be dangerous.