This weeks issue of Nature includes a commentary entitled Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy which discusses the “growing demand for cognitive enhancement” through the use of pharmaceuticals and outlines a strategy for intelligently, morally and safely incorporating smart drugs into modern society.

I am no stranger to nootropics. Though I can no longer claim to be an active user of cognitive-enhancing drugs – save for my morning caffeine – I have a long historical interest, both personal and professional, in the topic. Just last week in fact, while searching through some of my archives, I came across an old ‘zine from the 90′s – Collected Letters it was called – in which appeared a small article featuring a long list, the title of which was The Chemical Additives of Roderick Russell. This may strike those who know me as a teetotaler as odd. Never have I engaged in drug use in the tradition sense – no smoking, no drinking – but peak performance of the human brain has always been a subject near and dear.

With such a long history of interest and involvement in the field – and I tell you all this to demonstrate that I do indeed have a very positive interest – one may wonder why, on the surface of it, I seem to be opposed to widespread use of cognitive-enhancing compounds. My own ’04 article on the topic seems at first glance to be very anti-nootropic – but that is only at first glance.

My concern is that by engaging in widespread promotion of cognitive-enhancing pharmaceuticals, we serve more to undermine the foundation of peak performance and the moral development of society as a whole.

I am entirely in favor of individuals having the right to modify as they see fit. I worry only that these individual choices may come about in absence of the educational foundation necessary to make a truly informed decision, and this uneducated choice may have wider consequences for others in society.

The commentary in Nature provides a well-balanced look at the many issues facing the introduction of cognitive-enhancing drugs to healthy individuals in society while also offering up a reasoned path for such widespread implementation.

Some of the encouraging statements found within the commentary (all emphasis mine):

The drugs just reviewed, along with newer technologies such as brain stimulation and prosthetic brain chips, should be viewed in the same general category as education, good health habits, and information technology — ways that our uniquely innovative species tries to improve itself.

Drugs may seem distinctive among enhancements in that they bring about their effects by altering brain function, but in reality so does any intervention that enhances cognition. Recent research has identified beneficial neural changes engendered by exercise, nutrition and sleep, as well as instruction and reading. In short, cognitive-enhancing drugs seem morally equivalent to other, more familiar, enhancements.

This statement is encouraging insofar as the authors recognize the role of more traditional – less pharmaceutical – methods of cognitive enhancement, but their placement of these foundational methods on the same moral ground as drug-based methods is simply wrong. They go on to address this in the following statement:

Many people have doubts about the moral status of enhancement drugs for reasons ranging from the pragmatic to the philosophical, including concerns about short-circuiting personal agency and undermining the value of human effort

It is exactly this undermining of human effort that I oppose. I feel strongly that one should work hard and focus on maximizing performance through the methods of education, exercise, nutrition, sleep, reading – all of the methods outlined above – as well as practice, and only once character and ability have been developed through these means – true building of character, not augmenting of character – should one seek to push further through drug-based cognitive-enhancement.

The authors recognize the importance of these other cognitive-enhancement methods. They intelligently incorporate the question of smart drugs into the larger picture of society, social morality and education. Unfortunately, I fear that there is a major gap that exists between theory and policy on the one hand, and practice on the other.
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[tags]brain, cognition, cognitive enhancement, nature, nootropics, peak performance, smart drugs[/tags]