
Mentat Wiki - pmoriarty
http://www.ludism.org/mentat
======
dunkelheit
These are useful techniques but they kind of miss the point. They all
concentrate on the question of how to do something, but completely ignore the
(much more interesing in my opinion) question of what to do. Besides raw
intellectual ability good answer to this question requires creativity and also
philosophical and ethical skills (that includes the ability to make tough
decisions). Much harder.

Worth remembering who the mentats were in the Dune universe - servants of
those in power.

~~~
DiabloD3
Actually, I'm surprised the Dune universe never explored people who undertook
at least some mentat training, at least in secret, to become better leaders,
instead of merely relying on that group of human computers.

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beschizza
Isn't Paul Atreides being secretly trained as such by Hawat? Or was it just
Bene Gesserit training?

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DiabloD3
A bit of column A, a bit of column B. See my other reply.

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jjcc
It is interesting that no comments mention the "SmartDrug" , or nootropics.
There was a rumor that half of Silicon Valley CEOs use Modafinil,an important
nootropics that enhance human's brain.

There are some new breakthrough in recent years about psychedelics that with
low dosages, psychedelics can be more efficient nootropics. Psychedelics might
give normal people some visualization capabilities that most famous geniuses
have. It's good for graduate students to understand complicated math or
engineering concept. There could be more new discoveries in Science because
more normal people have genius brains.

Steve Jobs mentioned using LSD was one of two or three most important things
in his life.That statement might be ignored by most people.It's quite likely
that Jobs could never be the Jobs we know without LSD.

~~~
someman7
The Jobs we know is no genius. The only extraordinary thing about him is the
ability to exploit people. As for psychadelics, they'll give you the ability
to visualise things that normal people don't alright. Like random geometric
shapes even after you've stopped using.

~~~
bordercases
He was alright: [https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-
einste...](https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-
einstein/201111/was-steve-jobs-smart-heck-yes)

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Herodotus38
I didn't check every link but I find it interesting that under "improving
intelligence", there is no mention of the generations of work previous
thinkers have put in to the question about how to be wiser/intelligent, or the
question of what that means.

I'm not saying the answer lies in past philosophers, but I think it would be
silly to discount previous work done in this area and focus on video games and
drugs.

~~~
pmoriarty
Which thinkers did you have in mind?

The Mentat Wiki has entries on mnemonic techniques like the Major System[1],
Peg System[2], and the Loci System (aka Memory Palace)[3], which are hundreds
if not thousands of years old.

It's not really fair to characterize the wiki as being all about "drugs and
video games".

[1] -
[http://www.ludism.org/mentat/MajorSystem](http://www.ludism.org/mentat/MajorSystem)

[2] -
[http://www.ludism.org/mentat/PegSystem](http://www.ludism.org/mentat/PegSystem)

[3] -
[http://www.ludism.org/mentat/LociSystem](http://www.ludism.org/mentat/LociSystem)

~~~
Herodotus38
I was thinking of philosophers like the Greeks (Socrates, Plato, etc...),
Jewish (Maimonides, Goan, etc...), Chinese (Confucius, Sun Tzu), Europeans
(Descartes, Hume), American (Autobio of Benj Franklin, other autodidacts like
Hamilton, Jefferson, etc). Now, a good argument against my list is that few of
these sources have actual methods for becoming more intelligent, aside from
general advice on how to live "a good life" (paraphrasing) which will allow
one to be wise.

I hadn't seen the systems you mentioned so I will check those out, thanks.

I can see how my comment came across as implying it was all drugs and video
games, which it is not and I should have chosen my words better. I was trying
to convey the overall feel that I got from the site that becoming more
intelligent can be done with quick interventions (which is entirely possible,
but I think unknown).

This wiki is in its early stages so I can't fault it much. What I would like
to see is a source of evidence behind each link it lists for improvements in
memory, creative thinking, problem solving, etc... so that interventions can
at least be ranked. The reality is presently we can't measure these things
very well. Another nice addition would be early childhood interventions that
have been associated with increased intelligence (something we do have data
on).

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maxerickson
Interesting that there is no mention of better ideas.

(for example, people will choose to internalize ideas that are economically
valuable, and if they happen to have applicability beyond that, they are
likely to end up better thinkers as a by product of seeking that economic
advantage)

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chm
Nice project, I'll be browsing it for the next hour or so. I do have a
suggestion, however. Take the MemoryTechnique[1] page for example. It should
begin with a very short introduction to the subject and be followed by a
suggested reading order. The links are good but they need to be presented
differently in order for users to find what they want more quickly.

[1]:
[http://www.ludism.org/mentat/MemoryTechnique](http://www.ludism.org/mentat/MemoryTechnique)

