

The underground world of neuroenhancing drugs (2009) - sajid
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/04/27/brain-gain

======
lkrubner
I understand that this article is focused on a different type of drug, but
still I would have appreciated some mention of nerve growth factor. I find it
interesting that Rita Levi-Montalcini worked until she was 102 years old, and
I've read reports of NGF maintaining brain size in old people, so there is
some evidence of it being "neuroenhancing" in some sense. It should get a
mention in an article like this.

~~~
Toast_
I think the article may be focusing more upon the intention behind taking the
drug, rather than the drug's actual function. If we were to extend the
definition as functionally "neuroenhancing," you may end up with a rather
wonky list; Take for instance 2,4-Dinitrophenol.
Source:[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/15216540600702198...](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/15216540600702198/abstract;jsessionid=48AA99076FE8C76A12359421A8042B00.f02t01)

------
z0r
I feel like I've read this before, but I must not have known who Paul Phillips
was the first time around. Interesting to be reading about the poker player
and not the compiler author

~~~
Dewie
Oh damn, I didn't know they were the same person. All I knew about him
beforehand is from watching this video[1], but it's weird to read about a
person and then find out that they also were the same person that you knew
from somewhere else.

[1] (How Scala [Typesafe] is doing "everything wrong")

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS1lpKBMkgg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS1lpKBMkgg)

------
mylons
i'm curious what the current state of nootropics is compared to 2009. who has
some insights on their throwaway?

~~~
johnward
I haven't read this article yet but this seems like a good summary of what's
going on now:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/wiki/faq](http://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/wiki/faq)

------
callesgg
The article seams very sensationalized.

------
Dewie
> Working memory has been likened to a mental scratch pad: you use it to keep
> relevant data in mind while you’re completing a task. (Imagine a cross-
> examination, in which a lawyer has to keep track of the answers a witness
> has given, and formulate new questions based on them.)

Isn't it weird that we have to use auxiliary,learned tools as an analogy to
how an innate _tool_ works, and not the other way around? It's not like we
don't have a lot of experience with thinking and forgetting, ourselves.

