Paul Phillips ([info]extempore) wrote,
@ 2009-04-22 19:15:00
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a brain gain again
Here's something to read:

The underground world of “neuroenhancing” drugs.

...but ten pages taxes my attention span. Perhaps someone could summarize.

Edit: or you can listen on NPR. I still haven't read the above or listened to the below, so someone please let me know if I should scrub this entry and pretend nothing happened.

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[info]brec
2009-04-23 02:39 am UTC (link)
Heh

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[info]howardtreesong
2009-04-23 03:50 pm UTC (link)
"Cerebral and occasionally brusque." Amusing.

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[info]henryclay
2009-04-23 08:20 pm UTC (link)
Standard Pseudo-Intellectual New Yorker shit...plus something about an old dude who is drying to go back to school. Paul something?

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[info]brec
2009-04-24 02:47 pm UTC (link)
OK, now I've read the article. Summary: People who take uppers become bored with poker.

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[info]evwhore
2009-04-27 05:12 pm UTC (link)
NYT article now linked at slashdot

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[info]extempore
2009-04-27 07:09 pm UTC (link)
Hey, are you still on cgp? Someone unknown to me forwarded me what I hope was only the initial message in a long entertaining thread, but as yet I've only seen the one which says "anyone played this guy?" implying if anyone had they were damn lucky to survive the experience. If there is more and you don't mind, please forward.

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[info]evwhore
2009-04-27 07:18 pm UTC (link)
Sorry, there weren't any followups. I also think you're imagining the "lucky to survive the experience" overtones :-)

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[info]extempore
2009-04-27 07:33 pm UTC (link)
Let's just say "do we have to initiate urine tests before tournaments?" does not strike me as particularly open-minded. Also, "this guy" is the standard replacement for "him" when one is seeking to dehumanize and/or villainize - no, really.

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[info]evwhore
2009-04-27 07:39 pm UTC (link)
Let's just say "do we have to initiate urine tests before tournaments?" does not strike me as particularly open-minded.

I wasn't sure it was entirely serious, e.g. I made room for the possibility they were being tongue-in-cheek. Or at least, that they were just interested in provoking a dialogue (which failed, heh). We don't have the same the same visual cues in a written medium that you would in a face-to-face conversation, so it's hard to tell...

Also, "this guy" is the standard replacement for "him" when one is seeking to dehumanize and/or villainize - no, really.

... that doesn't mean all uses of "this guy" are meant to dehumanize/villainize. Maybe the person just writes poorly and doesn't use paragraphs and that sentence wasn't necessarily logically related to the previous one.

I mean, I can certainly see how I might feel differently if I were the subject, but I'm inclined to give the benefit of the doubt and interpret all of this innocuously until proven otherwise.

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[info]lowwall
2009-04-27 07:49 pm UTC (link)
So one of the the aftereffects of taking too much speed is that you lose the ability to maintain sufficient focus and/or interest to read about yourself in the New Yorker? I'm glad I only take drugs for recreational rather than professional reasons.

But seriously folks... It looks like the author wants this to be reassuring to readers. Although she throw up a few dystopian possibilities just to keep people interested, she downplays the possibilities by saying while these drugs may help maintains focus, it's at the possible cost of creativity and that any increases in cognitive abilities other than focus are more in the form of bringing underperformers up to par rather than increasing the ceiling on high performers.

In other words, for us creative and brilliant readers of the New Yorker (and extempore) it's not worth the trouble unless we have a desire to becomes a pretty good, but not great, Scrabble player.

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[info]ezrastiles
2009-04-27 09:29 pm UTC (link)
I wonder what John P. Walters would have to say about the new yorker article, given his most recent excellent editorial about his great success in government.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124061336043754551.html

Given how precise his logic is, and the rigorousness of his fact finding, he'll probably conclude that Adderal, if it remains legal, will soon destroy all of human civilization.

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[info]extempore
2009-04-27 09:43 pm UTC (link)
"Drug abuse is, by nature and the laws of organic chemistry that govern this disease, incompatible with freedom and civil society."

Why stop with the moral high ground? Jailing millions of people for nothing represents the FREEDOM-LOVING moral high ground! Always nice to be reminded that words don't actually mean anything.

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[info]salixquercusii
2009-04-29 02:02 pm UTC (link)
But he had, as he put it, “exhausted myself on all forms of leisure,”

You industrious good-for-something bastard. The first sign that indolence requires no effort, and you quit. Think about all the people not working hard every day without the benefit of your premium Netflix account and surround sound. Quit getting it together, and get your assiduous ass back on the couch!

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[info]jjharris1978
2009-05-19 10:30 pm UTC (link)
About how long did it take for the effects of the Adderall and Provigil to attenuate?

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