08-19-2005, 03:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-19-2005, 03:52 PM by Occhidiangela.)
:D
The linked article makes two unwarranted assumptions.
1. An escape from, as already noted, the multi variable interactions that manifest themselves in side ffects, both serious and benign, aswell as the serendipitously beneficial per Viagra. Heroin: once believed to be the perfect replacement for morphine, due to it being, get this, non addictive. :lol:
2. Enhancing intelligence presumes there is something there to start with, and that the brain muscle, as it were, is developed and exercised on useful content while young, and a state of continual fitness is striven for as a matter of habit. Put differently, if you take anobolic steroids but don't work out, you don't get Ahnold like pumped up outcomes.
The second assumption comes up short in any case, given the general opacity of the human population. This is not to blame all of the mentally mundane, as for some the choice to indulge in serious brain exercise runs afoul of the lower three tiers of Maslow's Heriarchy consuming the lions' share of their time.
For the modest percentage operating in the upper two tiers, there is still the matter of overcoming baser instincts such as sloth, caffeine or other drug addiction, drunkenness, purely physical pursuits, and general distaste for matters cerebral.
See any number of sports stars who run afoul of purely animal urges, Bob Hayes or Lawrence Taylor, or Roscoe Tanner and Art Schlichter, Denny McLean, or even Mike Tyson and Kobe Bryant.
Charitably presuming the flawed assumptions presented in the article as true, we would appear to be nearing the utopian condition postulated by Frank Baum, in whose Oz books any number of smart pills were available to enable Oz' denizens to amass immense fields of knowledge by simply taking the pill.
As with any utopia, such a condition can only be approached assymptotically but never achieved. Taking the limit as time approaches infinity, we will still not arrive at utopia, no matter how many drugs we take, but will rather arrive at complete entropy and the perfection of bloody fork all: nothing. There is a purity in nothing, but it makes for lack of variety, and you can't play capture the flag there. I'd opt for the drugs, and the rest of you can have Utopia. The visuals are better my way. :blink:
Perhaps, as time approaches infinity, we will discover that the laws of physics are a bit more local than universal . . .
Back to more reasoned reality. Me, I'll take the neither the blue pill nore the red pill, and keep looking for that damned spoon, since I need to stir some chemicals into my coffee.
As for the Troll: Between his ears there is only SPACE, so the drugs would be wasted on him in the first place, although there's a bridge I'd like to sell him. Since Lemmy gave him his walking papers, I say we score the match
"Absurd Rodent" vs "Ludicrous Troll." :D
As 2-0 in favor of Lemming.
Next on the tee, Overcaffeinated Rogue versus The Madness of King George III.
Occhi
SPACE,Aug 16 2005, 11:26 AM Wrote:Check it out;
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/futurebody/ar...88743-3,00.html
Blah blah blah crappy ad copy[right][snapback]86216[/snapback][/right]
The linked article makes two unwarranted assumptions.
1. An escape from, as already noted, the multi variable interactions that manifest themselves in side ffects, both serious and benign, aswell as the serendipitously beneficial per Viagra. Heroin: once believed to be the perfect replacement for morphine, due to it being, get this, non addictive. :lol:
2. Enhancing intelligence presumes there is something there to start with, and that the brain muscle, as it were, is developed and exercised on useful content while young, and a state of continual fitness is striven for as a matter of habit. Put differently, if you take anobolic steroids but don't work out, you don't get Ahnold like pumped up outcomes.
The second assumption comes up short in any case, given the general opacity of the human population. This is not to blame all of the mentally mundane, as for some the choice to indulge in serious brain exercise runs afoul of the lower three tiers of Maslow's Heriarchy consuming the lions' share of their time.
For the modest percentage operating in the upper two tiers, there is still the matter of overcoming baser instincts such as sloth, caffeine or other drug addiction, drunkenness, purely physical pursuits, and general distaste for matters cerebral.
See any number of sports stars who run afoul of purely animal urges, Bob Hayes or Lawrence Taylor, or Roscoe Tanner and Art Schlichter, Denny McLean, or even Mike Tyson and Kobe Bryant.
Charitably presuming the flawed assumptions presented in the article as true, we would appear to be nearing the utopian condition postulated by Frank Baum, in whose Oz books any number of smart pills were available to enable Oz' denizens to amass immense fields of knowledge by simply taking the pill.
As with any utopia, such a condition can only be approached assymptotically but never achieved. Taking the limit as time approaches infinity, we will still not arrive at utopia, no matter how many drugs we take, but will rather arrive at complete entropy and the perfection of bloody fork all: nothing. There is a purity in nothing, but it makes for lack of variety, and you can't play capture the flag there. I'd opt for the drugs, and the rest of you can have Utopia. The visuals are better my way. :blink:
Perhaps, as time approaches infinity, we will discover that the laws of physics are a bit more local than universal . . .
Back to more reasoned reality. Me, I'll take the neither the blue pill nore the red pill, and keep looking for that damned spoon, since I need to stir some chemicals into my coffee.
As for the Troll: Between his ears there is only SPACE, so the drugs would be wasted on him in the first place, although there's a bridge I'd like to sell him. Since Lemmy gave him his walking papers, I say we score the match
"Absurd Rodent" vs "Ludicrous Troll." :D
As 2-0 in favor of Lemming.
Next on the tee, Overcaffeinated Rogue versus The Madness of King George III.
Occhi
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete