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AnonTechie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Cognitive performance enhancers promise to deliver a better version of ourselves: smarter, more alert and more mentally agile. But what if such enhancement was no longer a personal choice but a socially and legally enforced responsibility? In the final installment of Biology and Blame ( https://theconversation.com/topics/biology-and-blame [theconversation.com] ), Nicole A Vincent and Emma A. Jane explore the risks of normalising this emerging trend.

In Australia and all around the world, students, academics and professionals of various stripes are increasingly experimenting with new cognitive enhancement technologies ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23702522 [nih.gov] ) to boost their memory, attention, reflexes, clarity of thought and ability to function well with little sleep. In many cases, this involves the re-purposing of medications that have previously been used to help the sick become "normal", rather than to boost the well into some sort of superhuman sphere. These include controlled drugs such as Ritalin (a central nervous system stimulant usually prescribed for hyperactivity and impulse control), modafinil (a medication used for increasing wakefulness in patients with conditions such as narcolepsy) and donepezil (used to treat dementia).

http://theconversation.com/put-down-the-smart-drugs-cognitive-enhancement-is-ethically-risky-business-27463 [theconversation.com]

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