Is Big Pharma's next blockbuster Viagra for the brain?
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I was recently walking through La Guardia airport in a typical traveler's daze when a prominently displayed magazine cover jumped out at me.The title was "Pills to make you smarter".
I was hooked. I had to read more. Make no mistake. I wasn't in the market for a magazine in the first place. I was already heavily laden with the six issues of my local bar publication that I had been intending to read. And frankly, if I was going to buy a magazine it was pretty tempting to succumb to the urge to find out what exactly is going on with Lindsey Lohan. But the magazine marketing geniuses made a first time purchaser of Scientific American out of me.
The article, "Turbocharging the brain", queries: "Will a pill at breakfast improve concentration and memory-and will it do so without long term detriment to your health"? The article chronicles the fascinating scientific developments in cognitive enhancement drugs to treat Alzheimers and other dementias. But, it also raises a very disturbing question. Will these drugs ultimately be marketed and sold to healthy people as "lifestyle enhancement" drugs?
Currently, neuroethicists are debating this issue in the neuroscientific community. I certainly am not qualified to enter that debate. However, this is what I do know. With the advent of direct to consumer marketing, the big pharmaceutical companies have spoon fed us a steady diet of propoganda that there is a pill for everything that ails us. We are the "super size me" generation who believes that more is better. Multi-billion dollar industries have profited from our desire to eat more, be stronger, look better, and perform better in the bedroom.
The temptation to "super size" our brains could create an enormous demand for these "smart drugs", or as some have referred to them "viagra for the brain". As one neuro ethicist put it "Within the pharmaceutical field, people recognize that a successful cognitive enhancer could be the best selling pharmaceutical of all time". We needn't say more at this point. With the potential for hundreds of billions of dollars to be made, the pharmaceutical industry will find a way to use their slick marketing machines to convince us that we "need" these drugs. They will pay scientists and physicians to write articles in esteemed medical journals advocating their use and minimizing any potential side effects. Mark my words. It may not be in my lifetime, but this will come to fruition.
So, at the end of the day, the pharmaceutical industry will continue to wield enormous power over us. Some futurists have concocted the symbol "H1" to denote an enhanced version of humanity. Think of all the "lifestyle enhancement " drugs that can be peddled to the super-sized human. The question is what does this make us as human beings, what would a society of super-sized humans look like and would you want to live in it?
