From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Fri Jan 24 2003 - 18:35:14 MST
From: Hal Finney [mailto:hal@finney.org]
> Chances are this is going to change over the next few
> decades, as more effective drugs are found, with fewer side
> effects. In a way, it's good that older people suffer mental
> deficits, as it provides a socially acceptable justification
> for research into medications that enhance mental
> performance. As good drugs are found they may well leak down
> into the healthier segments of the population. Eventually
> the stigma will hopefully break down and people will adopt a
> more Extropian attitude towards enhancing their minds.
Thanks for posting this Hal.
Regarding the social questions brought up by smart drugs, I agree with
you that over the next decade or two it will become increasingly
"normal" to take mind-altering drugs for performance enhancement. In
addition to all the usual drivers of enhancement technology, I would
pay special attention to the pharmaceutical companies themselves.
Several of the major firms researching drugs for alzheimers and senile
dementia have stated that they're interested in the potential wider
market for those drugs among the "healthy" population.
We know that in general human mental function declines slightly with
age. I predict that we'll see the medicalization of this phenomenon.
Once age-related mental decline is considered a medical condition, it
will become more and more acceptable to prescribe drugs to "combat"
it. I think you can see a precursor to this both in the Prozac
example you mention, and also more clearly in the example of ADHD.
Both depression and ADHD are threshold phenomena, and the minimum
thresholds for diagnosis have been steadily creeping towards the
center of the curve. I'm already seeing mentions in Medline and
scientific journals of "Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)". Once they
give it an acronym, you can see it's headed towards medicalization.
See this Forbes article from February of '02 for an overview of
potential smart drugs in the pipeline of major pharmaceutical firms:
http://nootropics.com/smartdrugs/brainviagra.html
mez
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