Brain-Enhancing Drugs For All | Hacker News Reader

Brain-Enhancing Drugs For All

indiegogo.com

13 pointsmuoncf15 comments

I believe in research, I believe that we need to seek understanding and explore concepts, technologies and questions that can improve our race.

However, I have a huge issue with one of the goals of the project "People may choose to take nootropics due to the additional clarity it gives them, leading to increased performance in all walks of life."

The ethical dilemmas that this creates are massive. What about the authenticity of what it means to be "human". WHat about the adverse affects it will have on competition against those who don't have access to the enhancement (due to physiological, economic or other reasons)?

We need to understand this class of substance, however we cannot responsibly peddle "enhancements" in this way.

The ethics on this subject are extensively debated in academia (see works by Forlini & Racine among others...) and the only clear consensus that I've seen is that there are some very serious unanswered questions about the societal impact of this.

Would anyone back this campaign if it was studying athletic doping?

I see no moral dilemma in the least. There are two problems with doping. First, athletic competition is human vs human and is innately about the limits of human ability. Why prove a human can lift large amounts of weight instead of using a fork lift? Second, most athletic performance enhancing drugs do long term damage, so people are trading in their health for winning.

If there were a safe mental enhancing drug, I would definitely take it and never a moral dilemma in the least.

I don't know if these things work or not but the premise that improving people's abilities is somehow unethical is dangerous.

One could argue that giving good education to students gives them an unfair advantage to those without such an education. Does this mean that education is unethical?

Improving people's mental ability, whether through drugs or education, improves all of our lives. To win at being higher functioning and making better choices is not just a win for the individual but for the society at large. Those people can go on to improve the live of others and grow our collective economy. It's not zero sum as athletics can be thought of.

As an aside - if these improvements make us less human, then I don't see why modern medicine doesn't also make us less human. Do we define human purely as a certain cognitive ability?

> What about the adverse affects it will have on competition against those who don't have access to the enhancement (due to physiological, economic or other reasons)?

This is already a "problem". I don't think a new (potentially, safer) nootropic drug would make matters any worse.

Did you just imply that existing problems are difficult to make worse, so we should only worry about brand new problems?

No, I didn't.

$12,000? I think they forgot a few zeros. Who is going to risk their brain chemistry on a substance that has undergone this level of testing? I think they will raise all of our collective IQs once they test it on themselves and remove themselves from the gene pool.

On a side note: Does IndieGoGo have no standards at all? There is so many garbage projects there compared to KickStarter. It makes it very tedious to browse.

I have (nearly) nothing against drugs, especially those seemingly harmless. Still, reading articles like this I'm always reminded of this Blade Runner quote: "The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long".

Let's hope this is not the case.

Wow this sounds safe... get some random drug that these people make at the end of it? Could be anything.

> Could be anything.

That's true, but then again, that doughnut you purchased to "Support the Troops!" could contain anything as well.

Read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders

Can anyone let me know if these are legitimate? I have heard things about them in the past..

I use aniracetam (500mg twice daily) together with a choline supplement. It definitely improves my cognitive stamina: while I don't think it boosts my 'peak' ability, it increases the amount of time I can operate at that level.

It doesn't seem to be right/left-brain specific, either - my wife (a psychotherapist) finds it similarly helpful.

Regarding side effects, I had some headaches and disorientation during the first week, but nothing after that.

Better living through chemistry :-)

I think he meant something in the line of sources of clinical trials etc. Nonetheless, the sources on Wikipedia suggest that they have been extensively tested in mice, like all the other stuff we take. And they do have proven use in treating Alzheimers etc. They are considered nontoxic or even neuro-protective, but in my opinion often sought out for based on reviews from first users who are mostly biased from the start and therefor easily placeboo'd. No offence :) I'd love to try them, but I'm in dubio for reasons stated above.

I first read about nootropic drugs 15 or so years ago when I picked up a small book on the topic. Pricetam seemed like an effective drug with few side effects, and it could be bought over-the-counter in Mexico. I was living in San Diego, so I picked some up at a pharmacy and gave them a try. I did notice a significant impact on my concentration and mental clarity when taking the dosage recommended in the book. I think I finished off the bottle of a few months but never really thought about trying to get more. I think it was mostly because of not really knowing the side effects and not wanting to alter by body's natural chemistry too significantly.

a splash quite unnoticed this was Icarus drowning

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