Lead in as follows:
In America, university students are taking illegally obtained prescription drugs to make them more intelligent. But would you pop a smart pill to improve your performance? Margaret Talbot investigates the brave new world of neuro enhancementWould write more, but brain not doped right now ---
Thanks for posting. This was a really insightful article. A little scary even. I haven't used anything myself (except a lot of coffee), but it seems more and more common.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found most interesting is the quote: "They will help people in the lower end of the ability range more than in the higher end". I always assumed that it was people at the very top who used these drugs.
When I was in college, students with still-adolescent taste buds that rejected the bitter taste of coffee took ephedrine to study late into the night. Then ephedrine was pulled off the market, and it seems students ten years later have found prescription alternatives. It's misleading to say this is about increasing brain power or intelligence - it's just increasing productive hours so you can party AND study AND whatever else without falling asleep on your keyboard when you have a paper due the next day. It's their coffee roast of choice.
ReplyDeleteThis exact article was published in the New Yorker in April. See here.
ReplyDeleteIt's sort of weird that the Guardian doesn't make any mention of this.
weird - when I read it it seemed, well different --- not sure why --- weird --- need some drugs to help brain work better
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