Re: Brain Doping, or, The Futurological Congress

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Dave Wilson [dave () wilson net]
Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 9:41 AM
To: David Farber
Cc: ip
Subject: Re: [IP] Brain Doping, or, The Futurological Congress

Perhaps if people talked a bit more about the risks of messing around
with your wiring folks might be less inclined to engage in this sort of
behavior. While I certainly don't want to give anybody who needs
medication another reason to stop taking it, the permanent neurological
side effects of long-term use of drugs like prozac can be pretty
unsettling. Facial tics, for example, occur in about 25 percent of  such
users, and they can persist long after you stop taking the drug;
chemically induced Parkinsons is another known longterm side effect of
these selective serotonin reuptake inhibititors (SSRIs). In other words,
persistent, long term use of drugs that rewire your brain for purposes
other than survival -- that is, to combat profound depression, for
example -- can be extremely unwise and therefore such uses need to be
examined using risk analysis. Which is another way of saying you've got
to be nuts to try and goose your intellect every day of your career by
popping a pill; such behavior will inevitably profoundly shorten your
career and has a good chance of leaving you living the rest of  your
very long, medically extended, life tormented with profound neurological
difficulties.

-dave

David Farber wrote:
> ________________________________________
> From: Rod Van Meter [rdv () sfc wide ad jp]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 11:45 PM
> To: David Farber
> Subject: Brain Doping, or, The Futurological Congress
>
> Dave, for IP, if you wish...
>
> No one in their right mind, so to speak, would expect this *NOT* to
> happen.  As with many things, though, it seems to be happening quite
> suddenly.  I'm astonished at the assertion that three-quarters of
> classical musicians use them.  (Of course, it's not like the use of
> "performance-enhancing" drugs in music began with Keith Richards -- jazz
> was certainly an earlier form of "the devil's music".)  And at some
> colleges, a quarter of the students have tried ADHD-related drugs.
>
> We conduct such society-level experiments at our own peril, but this is
> hardly the first...
>
>                 --Rod
>
> http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-braindoping20dec20,0,5741092,full.story
>
> Drugs to build up that mental muscle
>
>
> Unlike the performance enhancers that plague athletic competitions,
> brain drugs haven't provoked similar outrage.
> Academics, musicians, even poker champs use pills to sharpen their
> minds, legally. Labs race to develop even more.
>
> By Karen Kaplan and Denise Gellene, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
> December 20, 2007
>
> Forget sports doping. The next frontier is brain doping.
>
> <snip>
>
> Despite the potential side effects, academics, classical musicians,
> corporate executives, students and even professional poker players have
> embraced the drugs to clarify their minds, improve their concentration
> or control their emotions.
>
> <snip>
>
> In an article published today in the journal Nature, Morein-Zamir and
> University of Cambridge neuroscientist Barbara J. Sahakian say that
> clear guidelines are needed to decide what's fair. It may be reasonable
> to ban the drugs in competitive situations, such as taking the SAT. But
> in other cases, they wrote, people such as airport screeners,
> air-traffic controllers or combat soldiers might be encouraged to take
> them.
>
> <snip>
>
> "If there were drugs that actually made you smarter, good Lord, I have
> no doubt that their use would become epidemic," Yesalis said. "Just
> think what it would do to anybody's career in about any area. There are
> not too many occupations where it's really good to be dumb."
>
>
>
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