The Smart Pill?!

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAKS0aVhGto&feature=relmfu

What do you think?

 

[PhoenixRising]

No... at least I don't think so.

 

[Irukanji]

Amphetamines, in controlled doses, can make good people come up with great ideas. They only become a problem when you don't sleep much, don't keep yourself clean, and don't drink water.

 

[Architect]

I would certainly not entrust my brain over to some arbitrary drug.

The era of brain augmentation has already begun. The cell phone is a form of this, how much of your life and information do you commit to it? This will simply continue into better and more subtle forms of mind enhancement. Personally I would just wait for these forms rather than pharmaceutical forms.

 

[intpz]

I would certainly not entrust my brain over to some arbitrary drug.

The era of brain augmentation has already begun. The cell phone is a form of this, how much of your life and information do you commit to it? This will simply continue into better and more subtle forms of mind enhancement. Personally I would just wait for these forms rather than pharmaceutical forms.

I commit nothing to my cellphone, fuck the cellphone. Defending myself is what the damn thing's good for!

I wouldn't try shit like that until it's proven AND proven to not have long-term effects, which is hard to prove. I'd prefer cyborg-like enhancements.

 

[defghi]

This looks like an extremely useful tool, and when I have a day of heavy concentration ahead of me I will be wishing it was available to me.

I think the argument against it in this story is very poor; that we shouldn't use it because there hasn't been any evidence of side effects is never something that would persuade me.

Also, I'm really angry that the "you only use 20% of your brain, this unlocks the rest" line didn't die with that awful movie, but has been renewed by this.

 

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

Amphetamines, in controlled doses, can make good people come up with great ideas. They only become a problem when you don't sleep much, don't keep yourself clean, and don't drink water.

Yes, you might have to force yourself to do these things.

I would certainly not entrust my brain over to some arbitrary drug.

The era of brain augmentation has already begun. The cell phone is a form of this, how much of your life and information do you commit to it? This will simply continue into better and more subtle forms of mind enhancement. Personally I would just wait for these forms rather than pharmaceutical forms.

Perhaps if you took the pill you could be the one to develop the more subtle forms.

I wouldn't try shit like that until it's proven AND proven to not have long-term effects, which is hard to prove. I'd prefer cyborg-like enhancements.

If they replaced my brain with a computer, would I still be me?

Also, I'm really angry that the "you only use 20% of your brain, this unlocks the rest" line didn't die with that awful movie, but has been renewed by this.

I think that died a long time ago.

 

[Proletar]

Great. Now our fine politicians and corporate bosses can get us to work 24/7.


"I see you haven't taken your provigil the past week. Do you enjoy your current employment?"

 

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

Great. Now our fine politicians and corporate bosses can get us to work 24/7.

 

[intpz]

If they replaced my brain with a computer, would I still be me?

Good question, I theorize no.

Great. Now our fine politicians and corporate bosses can get us to work 24/7.

I'd love to work for extended periods of time. I liked the "hibernation cycle" from "Star Trek: Enterprise." The doc had to sleep for a couple of days a year. That would be awesome, I had that thought repeatedly before and after watching Star Trek.

 

[Etheri]

I've always felt that, the more we trust and rely on other means, the less we learn for ourselves.

In this case, the more we rely on pills or our cellphone or other means in regard to intelligence, the more inherently stupid we'll eventually become.

 

[intpz]

What do pills have to do with it? They don't store information.

 

[Etheri]

What do pills have to do with it? They don't store information.

Do they need to store information for my argument to be true? If the pills make us smarter, but there is no reason for us to be smarter, we'll eventually just end up being dumber without the pills. However, it could be that as long as we keep taking the pills, we'll experience a total net gain, despite there being an effective loss in ones true intelligence.

Also, I started with a rule based upon experience, not rational thought and/ or proof, thus this reasoning is nothing more than an idea.

 

[intpz]

Yes, it does. When you take the pill, you become smarter; when you skip taking it tomorrow, you still have the same brain like you had before taking the pill. I find your statement funny.

 

[Etheri]

Yes, it does. When you take the pill, you become smarter; when you skip taking it tomorrow, you still have the same brain like you had before taking the pill. I find your statement funny.

When you take steroids, you grow muscles faster. When you stop the steroids, the gained muscle typically vanishes over time. Why would mental steroids be so diffrent? Why would their effect be permanent?

Humans adapt.

Do you want mankind to be smarter, then give mankind incentive to be so. - Evolution at it's best. (Warning : this might lead to a rather unethical discussion. Fuck it, who cares.)

 

[intpz]

When you take steroids, you grow muscles faster. When you stop the steroids, the gained muscle typically vanishes over time. Why would mental steroids be so diffrent? Why would their effect be permanent?

Humans adapt.

Do you want mankind to be smarter, then give mankind incentive to be so. - Evolution at it's best. (Warning : this might lead to a rather unethical discussion. Fuck it, who cares.)

Probably because they don't work enough afterwards, instead chill with the newly earned 2m bucks. Not sure about this though.

Aren't pills initiative to achieve more through more "brain-power?"

 

[Proletar]

A lot of valid points made here. Kudos to this discussion. This is the sort of thing I want to see on this kind of board. Give yourself a round of applaus. I'm not even being sarcastic.


"I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it."


So this: Intead of using up all your brain-space in memorizing names and places, why not leave that to wikipedia? Sure, we get worse at mental arithmetics when we get calculators, but that means we get space for other things.

The pill? Well, that's a different question. If it's non-toxic for the brain, there should be no damage to it. Instead, we get more time and power to learn stuff. I.E. - it should be beneficial. So is the pill toxic or not?

 

[Etheri]

So this: Intead of using up all your brain-space in memorizing names and places, why not leave that to wikipedia? Sure, we get worse at mental arithmetics when we get calculators, but that means we get space for other things.

In my opinion there's a huge diffrence between trivia / plain memory based things and stuff as arithmetics and maths. Yes, basic arithmetics are no more than memory (more often than not, through understanding is fairly simple), but deeper maths is far more than memory. It requires insight and understanding. For that reason, calculators (and software as wolfram alpha / matlab / etc) will always require people to have atleast a basic understanding of the maths they're dealing with. (In contrast to memory based knowledge, which only requires you to be capable of finding the info you're looking for.)

You don't need to know anything about some war that happened 1000 years ago on the other side of the globe to look it up on wiki and find out exactly when and where it started, finished, etc. (Obviously, for deeper understanding of the motives you will require either more in depth texts or background. )
However, without basic knowledge of atleast the principles of calculus, you will not be able to work out basic integrals - even if wolfram alpha can solve them for you. (Must be capable of putting the question in mathematical terms which the computer understands, and translate the answers back to physical their physical meaning)

Memory can be replaced, but for now, maths cannot.

The pill? Well, that's a different question. If it's non-toxic for the brain, there should be no damage to it. Instead, we get more time and power to learn stuff. I.E. - it should be beneficial. So is the pill toxic or not?

I could be smarter if I just hardcore studied more. Hell, I could be smarter if I actually got out of bed before noon and went to my classes. The effect of my brain working faster would not be that i'd study much more... So why don't I?

If I study faster, will I still study the same ammount of time and learn more, or will I simply study less, learn the same, and spend the remainder of the time doing other things? Obviously, the answer is a compromise of both of the above, but my point is : We do not need pills to make us smarter. Instead, we need strong motivators to make us smarter. These would, to me, be far more efficient than pills. Pills only work when you're already studying to your maximum extent and still require a boost,... I might just be a lazy dick... but I don't generally see a point in doing more than required.

PS. Why would a pill be initiative to achieve more? Sure, we'd get high on our own capabilities at first... But that rush would wear off just like anything else. Again, I don't work to my maximum capacities now... Why would I suddenly decide to work to my maximum capacities when i'm eatin' brain steroids?

 

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

PS. Why would a pill be initiative to achieve more? Sure, we'd get high on our own capabilities at first... But that rush would wear off just like anything else. Again, I don't work to my maximum capacities now... Why would I suddenly decide to work to my maximum capacities when i'm eatin' brain steroids?

The interesting thing is that the pill is supposed to make you feel more motivated to do things. I'm not sure how it works but it seems too good to be true, it cures dumb people, tired people, and unmotivated people.

 

[Irukanji]

Yes, you might have to force yourself to do these things.

I forced the habit of waking up, eating, drinking, showering, etc in some specific order before taking it. I still do little "rituals" that my subconcious remembers before I use drugs or other things which have the potential to go wrong.

 

[QuickTwist]

I would certainly not entrust my brain over to some arbitrary drug.

The era of brain augmentation has already begun. The cell phone is a form of this, how much of your life and information do you commit to it? This will simply continue into better and more subtle forms of mind enhancement. Personally I would just wait for these forms rather than pharmaceutical forms.

I've started using Lumosity as a way to keep my brain sharp (I lost a lot of cognitive power as I've aged without actively engaging my brain, like having a job or having to use math.) I have found myself writing things down more as I've gotten older. I even started playing suduko once in awhile which I think can help keep the mind sharp as well.