Scientific American Review 1
Chris Asher
Dr. Jaeger
Psychology as a Natural Science
4 December, 2014
“Turbocharging the Brain”
Within this article, there are three key concepts that author Gary Stix would like to elaborate on. These concepts include the wonder why college students and top notch executives use stimulants for better mental performance, even though those stimulants were not originally made for that purpose. The next is the thought of distributing these drugs for the mental enhancement of normal healthy people. Lastly, Stix raises the question of how safe these drugs will be and if they are able to be taken on a regular basis without damaging the brain.
“Turbocharging the brain” begins with describing the “H+” symbol, which represents futurists’ vision of cognitive and physical enhancement and progression of human beings by means of advanced technologies and factors like brainenhancing pills. Even though former
President George H.W. Bush stated that the 1990’s were the “decade of the better brain,” the idea of a brainenhancing pill and their side effects has instigated an argument between many neuroscientists, ethicists, and physicians.
In a controversial subject such as this one, the reasons for both sides of the argument are vital. The first pro for widely distributing these drugs is simply that they have been scientifically proven to enhance the brain, with executive function, memory, and attention being three examples. A group of ethicists and neuroscientists published their research with aims of drifting away from the sole reason of these drugs being for pharmaceutical reasons. These scientists
suggested that if regular use of these drugs is proven safe and effective, then they could help performance in the cognitive activities. However, other scientists suggest that increasing cognitive ability is simply a matter of putting in the effort to acquire more knowledge. Another worry of using these drugs for cognitiveenhancing reasons is that it
Dr. Jaeger
Psychology as a Natural Science
4 December, 2014
“Turbocharging the Brain”
Within this article, there are three key concepts that author Gary Stix would like to elaborate on. These concepts include the wonder why college students and top notch executives use stimulants for better mental performance, even though those stimulants were not originally made for that purpose. The next is the thought of distributing these drugs for the mental enhancement of normal healthy people. Lastly, Stix raises the question of how safe these drugs will be and if they are able to be taken on a regular basis without damaging the brain.
“Turbocharging the brain” begins with describing the “H+” symbol, which represents futurists’ vision of cognitive and physical enhancement and progression of human beings by means of advanced technologies and factors like brainenhancing pills. Even though former
President George H.W. Bush stated that the 1990’s were the “decade of the better brain,” the idea of a brainenhancing pill and their side effects has instigated an argument between many neuroscientists, ethicists, and physicians.
In a controversial subject such as this one, the reasons for both sides of the argument are vital. The first pro for widely distributing these drugs is simply that they have been scientifically proven to enhance the brain, with executive function, memory, and attention being three examples. A group of ethicists and neuroscientists published their research with aims of drifting away from the sole reason of these drugs being for pharmaceutical reasons. These scientists
suggested that if regular use of these drugs is proven safe and effective, then they could help performance in the cognitive activities. However, other scientists suggest that increasing cognitive ability is simply a matter of putting in the effort to acquire more knowledge. Another worry of using these drugs for cognitiveenhancing reasons is that it