Intelligence in a Pill

December 12, 2008

As a fan of vintage sci-fi, I’ve long been fascinated with Daniel Keyes’ 1966 novel Flowers for Algernon, the story of Charlie Gordon, a 37-year-old mentally disabled man whose IQ is boosted to 200-plus by an experimental operation, and the existential dilemma that results. The book was made into a movie, Charly, in 1968. Star Cliff Robertson won an Academy Award for best actor.

Four decades later, the book and film’s basic premise remains tantalizing. What if there were a way for us to suddenly become way, way smarter? I’m not just talking about  Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? smarter, either. I’m talking scoring 165 or better on the Wechsler  or Stanford-Binet  scales, the generally accepted quantitative demarcation of genius.

But will artificially induced intellectual brilliance ever become possible? Hard to say. Scientists do know a bit more about the brain and how it works — and how that relates to intelligence -- than they did at the time that Flowers for Algernon was written, as this How Stuff Works article on the brain and genius details. A 2004 study at the University of California, Irvine, for example, found that sheer brain size is not as important as the volume of gray matter in parts of the cerebral cortex, while a 2006 National Institute of Mental Health study showed that the brain structures of very intelligent children develop differently than in kids of average intelligence. A 1999 analysis of the brain of proto-genius Albert Einstein suggests that physical attributes of many parts of the brain -- rather than a centralized "intelligence center" -- determine how smart a person is.

Einstein's brain was slightly smaller than the average brain. However, parts of his parietal lobe were wider than most people's brains. The larger areas in Einstein's brain are related to mathematics and spatial reasoning. Einstein's parietal lobe was also nearly missing a fissure found in most people's brains. Analysts theorized that the absence of the fissure meant that different regions of his brain could communicate better.

OK, so that all pretty much rules out the sort of surgical tweaking of intelligence that Keyes envisioned. (Oddly, though, Stanford University researchers have discovered that  gastric bypass surgery, for reasons that are not yet understood, seems to improve patients’ ability to remember, pay attention to detail and think through problems.)

Chemically enhancing intelligence may be a more promising route. Nootropics are a controversial class of drugs purported to boost brain performance by altering the availability of neurochemicals, increasing brain cell metabolism, improving oxygen supply to the brain, or stimulating the growth of new neurons. Already, an increasing number of people are experimenting with brain doping, using medications such as the attention-deficit drug Adderall and Provigil, a medication designed to treat narcolepsy, in an attempt to increase their powers of concentration and/or make cognitive breakthroughs. Twenty percent of the scientists who responded to a recent informal survey in the journal Nature admitted to using such drugs to enhance their brainpower. (From the Neuroanthropology blog, here’s a commentary on those findings.)  The real Viagra of brain doping, the pill capable of turning a pedestrian intellect into a truly high-powered one, has yet to be developed. But it strikes me that it may just be a matter of time.

So maybe this is the real question. Should scientists try to develop that sort of genius-in-a-capsule? You could argue that chemically enhanced super-intellects might find the cure for AIDS or develop a way to generate all the energy we need with a zero carbon footprint. But unless everyone had access to such a drug, next-generation brain dopers might form an oligarchy that would control a disproportionate share of wealth and power. And, as the sad examples of Sylvia Plath and David Foster Wallace illustrate, brilliance doesn’t translate automatically into happiness. Also, remember that things didn’t work out so well for Charlie Gordon, that fictional beneficiary of cognitive enhancement.

So, what do you think? Express your opinion below.

Comments

[Tony Allen]

I know people at college who already are using black-market Ritalin for this purpose! I'm sure that if a real intelligence-improving drug were available, its use would be quickly out of control.

[Caffeine Driven Stress Magnet]

I already use a drug like this. It's called espresso.

[ASTROBOY!]

I DONT NEED THAT PILL IM A GENIUS ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mike Brown]

If such a genius pill is developed, I could see this causing a huge divide in society, between people who have access to the drug (or can afford to buy it)and those who don't or can't. It really could be the end of the American Dream in some ways! Also, we don't know what sort of side effects such a drug might cause.

[Carlene]

We've already had a big problem with people like Alan Greenspan and Donald Rumsfeld thinking that they were geniuses, which they used to justify truly monumental blunders. I hate to think what will happen when this pill arrives and gives people a license to think that they're too smart for their own good!

[Richard Marquette]

I think this is an excellent idea. We could give this drug to doctors and scientists who could use the extra intelligence to help them find cures for diseases and solutions to our environmental problems.

[Mothra]

You all are overlooking that the real benefit of a drug to increase mental function would be to help people with diseases such as Alzheimers and Downs Syndrome.

[Donnelly]

Sometimes I wish I had a pill like that but one thing we may forget is that there is always gonna be at least one bad guy that will use this for his own good. Like for instance a hacker or a Bin Laden wanna be. Let's not think people will only use this for the good of mankind.

[Steve-O]

I think this pill would be a threat to our democratic system. The people who could afford it or gain access to it would be smarter than the rest of the population. How long will it be before they will demand special rights or more political power. They may change the system itself to give them more authority.

[Chauncey]

I think everybody here is mistakenly focusing on the negative possibilities, and ignoring the potentially ENORMOUS benefits of having an intelligence-enhancing drug. That may be the biggest proof that we need such a drug! Great inventions--railroads, the telephone, antibiotics, space travel-- often have had downsides, but in the sum total, the benefit usually has been greater.

[MrAsh150]

Too much IS being focused on the negative. You can bet that plenty will use it for their own benefit, I certainly would, however, I also have visions of improvements for mankind too. People will use it to gain power? Get out of here!? No freaking way! Well duh!! People ALREADY do that. How much worse can it get. It'll just give the stupid something else to focus on. "You only done did that 'cause youz smarts!".

Using this to enhance the intel of scientists and such to cure disease is great, BUT take into consideration the population boom from all the lives that we're saving? We'd have to start controlling how many kids families are having.

I'm quite frankly disgusted with how out of control and destructive humanity has become. We have the smarts to make the changes NOW, but we'd still prefer to just continue to wipe out rainforest and waste resources.

In short. I'd sign up for the pill in a heart beat to be more like einstein.

[Patrick Kiger]

You raise some good points, MrAsh. I wonder if what we really need is a pill that increases our moral sensibilities.

[lostinthought38]

I believe( and this is my opinion, so it isn't right or wrong)that having a pill or something likewise will definitely have some big advantages; but at the same time,the cons are also to large to simply say that the benefits make it all right!
yes, we could solve some of humanities largest mysteries, but wat if someone decides to do something destructive against humankind..............imagine if someone figures out how to create a mini atomic bomb! We would need regulations limiting just who exactly can have access to something like that! But that in turn also brings up the question, who would decide that?
Will the person/people in charge also need to use it as well, and wat if they take it and decide to hoard it all, or something similar
not exactly answering the question about whether it should be used or not, but thats not my job. i'm just here to state my opinion!

[Cinderella]

A mini atomic bomb? I think the world already has those, unfortunately. They're called "suitcase bombs" or "portable nuclear weapons. There was a rumor that a bunch of Soviet-made ones went missing after the collapse of the Soviet Union, though there seem to be differing reports on whether that actually happened.

http://cns.miis.edu/stories/020923.htm

[Wisconsin Cheesehead]

I think the whole notion of suitcase a-bombs is a myth. A nuclear device that size would be heavy, cumbersome to move and very, very expensive. Whoevever thought it up needs to take one of those genius pills, probably.

[Karen Rosell]

Improving IQ with just a pill, why not?
I think that the human race needs the extra help of our own technology, so that we don't disappear, at least in a near-future. But, a big detail for making this idea plausible is the fact of considerating the need of creating enough pills, so that all the humans could participate in the society. Because when all the society starts to think a little bit more, our advance will be so impressive that a non-thinking person would be obviously rejected by the rest.

[a.t.]

For selfish reasons, I support the pill. I think we'd all like more intellectual stimulation in the world. Having the power to increase your intelligence doesn't sound half bad either.

[Techforce]

I agree with some above..it would definitely be nice to have a pill to boost intelligence, but you also have to look at the disadvantages, such as mad people whom take the pill and think their better than people whom could not afford it, hackers in which destroy our technological revolution, could take the pill and become better at their tasks.
The advantages are great as well, like maybe scientists develop the pill and bamm! possibly solve the worlds problems?
It's a possibility...

[Dr. Duh]

they way i understand this is that the pill wouldn't make you smarter rather it would make your capacitys for learning greater which isn't that much of a problem because it would just make doing what we can already do easyer. The real downside i see to this then is that it would continue making us lazyer and this could lead to a point to where no matter how "smart" we are no one feels like using their "smarts"