Ritalin in Our Water

“Society has clearly benefited from the invention of caffeine, so why shouldn’t we also put a touch of amphetamine in the water?” The Frontal Cortex ponders human enhancement: “The unintended consequences are why I think it’s way too soon to start thinking about cognitive enhancement for people without cognitive deficits. After all, if we can’t even improve the intelligence of mice without causing worrisome side-effects, then what hope is there for the endlessly complex human cortex, full of feedback loops and interacting pathways? The brain is a precisely equilibrated machine, constructed over tens of millions of years by natural selection. Too many of our ‘improvements’ come with a steep cost.”