Something this article (pretty badly) overlooks is can you boost intelligence in isolation in someone’s body? If you take a CPU meant to run at 4 GHz and overclock it to 5 GHz, it usually requires a more extensive cooling and power support system, as well as shortening its lifespan and increasing the chance of burnout. If someone’s brain is genetically balanced to be of a certain intelligence, is there a similar effect on the other body systems when you screw with it? Even if we could push “super geniuses” to even higher forms of IQ to gain from their discoveries, I have little doubt it would push these folks into even intenser levels of mental illness and instability (if you’ve ever met a few super geniuses you know what I mean.)
Heck, they believe depression begins with microbes in the stomach for goodness sakes. Does the microbiome affect intelligence and thinking as well? If emotions aren’t limited to the brain, is intelligence?
I doubt any of this is as simple as just setting your brain to “11” and walking away.
Intelligence Augmentation would be fine in my view if capitalism wasn’t the prevailing system. Like death, being equal in stupidity is something that’s a benefit to society as it makes you less antisocial since you’ll eventually have to ask for directions.
But if you are in the upper economic classes, your doctor will provide it and your insurance will pay for it, no need to risk illegal drug dealing and its attendant concerns. My buddy Eric the Red went back to college in his mid 50s to get a chemistry degree, and his doctor was happy to prescribe him Aderall so he could keep up with the kids.
