In the June 2000 issue of Discover magazine, there’s an article about the development of pills which will enhance one’s long term memory. Pop a pill, read a book, remember every word. Learn a new language in a month. Ace every test you ever take.
Clinical trials for these drugs are just 2-5 years away according to the article. Interesting stuff. Mental steroids, you might call them. The researchers call it the neuronal equivalent of Viagra.
But is this fair? Obviously those who choose to take the drugs will have advantages in school, at the workplace, and at life in general over those who choose not to indulge. The article also points out that a person who uses the pills could run the risk of remembering (and never being able to forget) things he really doesn’t want to while under the effects of the pills - the ingredients on a cereal box, for example.
Assuming these researchers are successfull and able to produce such a drug with minimal side effects, should the general public be able to use it? Would this be cheating at the game of life?
For more info about the research, visit this page and this page.
I expect this to become a big question in the next several years, as psychiatry moves out of its dark ages and as genetic manipulation becomes a reality. Medicine has traditionally been seen as a good thing when going from bad to normal, but has generally been frowned upon when going from normal to better (plastic surgery, recreational drugs, etc.). Is it OK to use medical technology to improve on your normal life, and not to correct a defect or disorder?
To me, it comes down to the adverse effects of the drug. If it does as the article says but has no serious side effects, I say why not? If it makes people happy and improves their lives without having any detrimental effect on them or those around them, I really can’t see any reason to hold it back. Of course, there is the problem that the drug would be very expensive and that the increased mental capacity of the wealthy could result in even further class separation, but I would rather deal with that issue by working to get the drug to those who wanted it rather than by holding the drug back entirely.
It becomes another story when the drugs have serious adverse effects. This is the problem with anabolic steroids–they have side effects that some (most) athletes are not willing to take. However, if steroids were allowed, it would be difficult to compete with those who were willing to endure the side effects for the increased performance. Similarly, it would be hard to compete in an academic environment if you didn’t take the drug and deal with the side effects. I still don’t think the drug should be made totally unavailable in this case–perhaps just restricted in certain situations. No one should have to be in a situation (say, public school) where they are at a disadvantage because they don’t take the drug.
That raises an interesting question–what side effect would you be willing to endure for this increased memory power? What if it took ten years off your life? What if it somehow made you terribly unattractive? What if it had no side effects in most people, but caused one person out of 5,000 to immediately drop dead?
Sorry for the long-ass post–I get long-winded in the wee hours of the morning.
Dr. J
PS: On a personal note–clinical trials in two years? Just when I’m finished with med school. Freakin’ figures.
Been a while since i’ve visted this board. Been on one closer to my age group, but anyway…
As with Genetic munipulation this drug will cause many problems.
It would definitly not be fair for anyone whom could not take this drug.
It will cause class seperation.
It will probably lead to civil unrest in the attempt to attain this drug(who wouldn’t want it?)
But I also believe that this drug will lead to many advances in technology which perhaps can once again put the greater population at rest. Who knows what advances we could make? Perhaps we will be able to spread out across the worlds… but that is the idealist view.
For this day and age I would be against this pill until it can be widely distributed.
of course there are adverse effects… like longterm memory. I mean honestly people drink to forget, not to remember. And of course you cant get something for nothing so either other parts of your brain will suffer or your memory will burn out (with long term effects being altzheimers?:P) drugs are bad for you:)
I predict an underclass of people who cannot obtain these pills for financial or medical reasons.
I don’t think its a given that people who enhance their long term memory with this pill would necessarily be “smarter” than other people.
Memory and intelligence are not the same thing.
We might very well end up with people who clean up in Trivial Pursuit, but still can’t grasp General Relativity. Remember (no irony intended) there are people now who have photographic memories, but they haven’t taken over the world.
Before you start building your survival shelter for the war between the RNA haves and have-nots, I have four little words to calm you down…
“Definitely time for Wapner.”
True enough, but don’t you think that memory is part of high er intelligence? One can be the smartest person in the world, but if they do not have the static knowledge to draw upon the dynamic intelligence that they have can not be expressed. Can you do a calculus problem without knowing the rules for derivitives? Can you do physics without equations?
Can you debate without knowledge(well… ok so you can, so what? =) )