Word: use
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Welcome to the brave new world of "cognitive enhancement," a term that typically refers to the use of attention- or memory-boosting prescription drugs, such as Adderall, Ritalin and modafinil (Provigil), along with other performance-raising medications, to improve productivity. College kids have been doing it for years. About 7% of U.S. university students report having taken stimulants "nonmedically" at least once, according to a 2005 study of nearly 11,000 students. On some campuses - primarily private, élite schools - a full quarter of students admit to nonmedical drug use in the past year, mainly in an attempt to improve...
Smart drugs are used widely off-campus as well: fighter pilots take stimulants to enhance alertness and cognition on critical missions; in the civilian world, executives take beta-blockers to calm nerves, while some time-pressed writers use wakefulness drugs, like modafinil, to meet deadlines. It's become commonplace enough that a group of seven leading bioethicists and neuroscientists published an editorial in the science journal Nature last month advocating the use of performance-boosting drugs. "Cognitive enhancement has much to offer individuals and society," the authors wrote, "and a proper societal response will involve making enhancements available while managing...
Indeed, it would be hard to argue against promoting the use of an intelligence enhancer if it were risk-free and available to everyone. Imagine a legion of cancer researchers on smart drugs, racing toward a cure. Or how about a better class of Wall Street executives, blessed with improved thinking and wiser judgment? Considering the torrent of negative public responses to the Nature editorial, however, many Americans appear to regard enhancement as cheating, unnatural or a rationalization of drug abuse. But ask these bioethicists, and they'll say it's not cheating at all - as long as everyone...
...real hazards of prescription stimulants. The effects of chronic, high doses of amphetamine are toxic; it can cause psychosis, depression and cognitive deficits, which are sometimes irreversible. That's why the street drug methamphetamine rightly has a terrible reputation. But lasting problems don't usually emerge from the therapeutic use of prescription stimulants - while the drugs do carry a risk of increased blood pressure, which raises the chance of heart attack and stroke, close medical monitoring reduces that risk...
Buchanan says he plans to test the hearing of the world's top golf professionals at the British Open in 2009, "which should give us a better idea of the dangers of frequent use." Until further study is completed, he recommends that golfers who use modern titanium drivers wear earplugs as a precaution - advice that may not be as onerous as it sounds. After all, earplugs can protect golfers not just from the crack of the club but also the more harrowing sound that often follows: a splash...