[extropy-chat] Singularity Drugs

[Neil H.]

On 4/14/06, Russell Wallace <russell.wallace 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?).
> >
>
> My guess is that no simple chemical tweak will confer large benefits to
> most people without corresponding disadvantages, simply because if such were
> easily had, evolution would probably have already found it. (Eliezer called
> this "Algernon's Law", IIRC.)
>

Not necessarily. For example, one might imagine some sort of "tweak" which
would enhance intelligence at the cost of dramatically increased energy
consumption. Something like this would be selected against over the millenia
of human evolution, as energy/food was generally hard to come by. In
contemporary society however, energy/food is quite easy to get -- indeed, we
have huge diet/exercise industries dedicated to trying to get people to
consume less food or use more energy.

In sum, something which may have been an evolutionary disadvantage may not
be a disadvantage today.

-- Neil
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