Cognitive Freedoms and your government.

[elfs]

A few days ago one of by daily brainstuffs included an article about how one in five scientists were using chemical enhancements such as Ritalin, Adderall, or Modafinil to maintain focus during research. I pointed jokingly to WABDA, the "World Anti-Brain Doping Authority," which was an April Fool joke.

There once was an organization, the Elliot Institute (the website is now gone) which has the distinction of being the first explicitly anti-transhumanist organization in history. It was founded by an anti-abortion group as a sideline opposing stem cell research, but the mission statement was to ban "all attempts at advancement beyond human norms." The home page banner had a photo of a woman comforting her obviously distraught daughter, who must have been traumatized because Muffy up the street had better vision, recall, and hair.

Anyway, I thought of this this morning when the AFP article on scientists and brain doping asked for a reaction from the National Institute for Drug Abuse. "It alerted us to the fact that scientists, like others, are looking for short cuts," said Wilson Compton, director of epidemiology and prevention research.

Just a reminder that your cognitive freedoms are at risk, and your government is likely to try and take you down a peg. Harrison Bergeron is always just around the corner, lurking.

Comments

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

Shortcuts to what? Evolution? I thought they didn't believe in that either.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

I suppose that there's a fair bet that the No Scientist Gets Ahead faction will eventually conclude that nootropics are wicked, evil and unrighteous (largely, perhaps, because their deity didn't think to mention them in some old collection of sacred texts).

Actually, I am rather surprised that the ruckus has not //already// arisen.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

There once was an organization, the Elliot Institute (the website is now gone) which has the distinction of being the first explicitly anti-transhumanist organization in history. It was founded by an anti-abortion group as a sideline opposing stem cell research, but the mission statement was to ban "all attempts at advancement beyond human norms."

Would this include study, training and practice? :O