Neuroenhancement: Will Your Life/Career Require It?

Reporter Margaret Talbot (in a New Yorker article – due out Monday) explores the underground world of neuroenhancing drugs.  Prescription medications such as Adderall and Provigil are taken by individuals for these drugs performance boosting properties instead of medically treatable conditions.  Adderall was developed for the treatment of ADHD and Provigil was developed to counter the symptoms of narcolepsy.  Non-ill users of these drugs can perform better in college and on the job.  Anonymous internet surveys reveal that use of these medications as brain boosters for those without treatable medical conditions is accepted by a wide variety of respondents.

Employees and students who do not take these enhancing medications often feel at a competitive disadvantage.  Physicians expect that in the near future the use of neurocosmetics will be commonplace.  Big Pharma is working at a furious pace to develop medications that will delay the effects of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and the normal cognitive declines  associated with old age.

What I’ve wondered is – if the me that becomes the better me,  which is solely detertimed by a pharmaceutical, will I still be the same old me?

Iggy Donnelly

Tuesday, 04/21/09 Public Square

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Shedding Tears about the Burdens on Rich White Men

In Politico today a main story is about how difficult it is for D.C. bookstores to keep the book The Forgotten Man on their shelves.  The “forgotten man” in this case are the men who  took on the burdens of “weaker” men during the 1930s Depression.  The book is critical of the FDR and the New Deal – one of the very few which takes this unusual approach.

From the article:   ” ‘Republicans are gobbling it up — and so are other lawmakers — because it tells you what they did, what worked and what didn’t.'”

Also:   “It also looks at the Great Depression with particular sympathy upon the plight of those who were burdened with supporting the ‘weak members of society’ during the New Deal and endeavors to give a voice to those ‘forgotten men.'”

Want to talk about a populist winning strategy . . . How can the GOP go wrong with this one? … I’d like to know.

Read more here . . .

Maybe there is a market for my new book, How Average People Really, Really Enjoy Living Under the Oppression of Robber Barons! Shaking my head…

iggydonnelly