The age of enhancement

@GK: I've never cut one open but I've heard that story from my pal with the script. He once gave me ten near the end of semester when I was writing a paper on the trappings of the Waterfall Model... it made my Tourette Syndrome SUPER bad.
When Word stopped tracking its temp save files properly (entering and resuming standby f'ed it up) an HOUR before it was due (bad student! bad!) I freaked out and lost so much control over my screaming mouth that the cops broke my fucking door down looking for dead bodies. They didn't even fish around for other shit, whoever called them really thought it was murder!
So yeah, putting the wrong kids on these scripts is really, really not fair considering I only took the recommended dosage, once or twice a day. I stayed awake and starved for two and then four days without noticing I hadn't left my f'ing computer except to smoke a million bowls. Anyway that's my Concerta story... was on Ritalin and Dex. as a kid and I had no idea that a time release pill could do that!

@Adam: I know right! Those things are space aged! The first time I cut one open I was like, "WHAT -- IS -- THIS!"

Are these drugs going to be promoted so that employers will get better results from workers? So that drug manufacturers will make more money? So that big-picture pharmacologists can take control of societal evolution?

The real question is what kind of self-regulating "morality" will emerge in this sort of pharma-arms-race. Will people who enthusiastically indulge in these medications still respect those who choose a different blend, or those who choose abstinence? Or will large numbers of people, perhaps even a majority, get swept up in a survival of the fittest where power and resources enough to make a paradise for all are, instead, turned into a might-makes-right hierarchy, with the drugs themselves arranging our society?

On an optimistic note, there's a glimmer of evidence that a diversity of approaches to this issue might be a natural result, and it might bring benefits with the resulting complexity and lack of "standardization". The article mentions that researchers have, "...engineered ordinary mice to learn quicker and better, but these bionic creatures are less able to apply their knowledge flexibly," and that it won't really be possible to insure that every "enhancement" will be purely beneficial. I think it is this point that researchers, legislators, and those in the exciting (addictive, sometimes?) throes of these developments should keep in mind when considering the positions of others.

Yes, like Concerta, whose manufacturers are great at paying psychiatrists to put people on it.

@Morrison: Yes and no, man. I think you'll find the extended release formulations commonly prescribed for ADHD and "ADHD" [sic] contain a lovely cocktail of amphetamine salt formulations with a broad range of half-lives. Same drug, significant improvement.

Drugs are for getting high. you need to. Start using them for other reason and you'll just need more to get high.

Yeah, that was my thought too.

"[...] as aids to concentration like Ritalin or newer “neuroenhancing” drugs like Adderall [...]"

"newer" ???
Adderall is just plain amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, both of which have been first synthesized 122 years ago (1887)!