[extropy-chat] Singularity Drugs

[Jef Allbright]

On 4/14/06, Martin Striz <mstriz at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4/14/06, A B <austriaaugust at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > Are there any prospects that before implants, BCIs (brain-computer
> > interfaces), uploading, or AGI (and Molecular Nanotechnology) come around
> > that any really kick-ass 'smart-drugs' are created and used? My impression
> > is that today's 'smart-drugs' confer only modest benefits, if any, to normal
> > healthy people. But maybe a really effective one will enter the pipeline
> > within the near future, that can objectively increase intelligence (by
> > safely increasing firing rates?). A kind of a poor man's version of
> > distributed nanobot enhancers - possibly made from nanoparticles or just
> > plain old pharmacology.
>
> Quantitatively, you could get marginal improvements based on blood
> flow, firing rate, signal speed, etc.  To achieve any signficant
> improvements, particularly to get qualitatively new kinds of thinking,
> you'll have to rewire the system.

I agree the benefits of smart drugs promise to be marginal and won't
significantly raise the overall intelligence of our society, but
marginal increases in certain capabilities, such as being able to work
effectively for longer periods without sleep, can and will be
influential in certain competitive scenarios.

- Jef