Bodybuilding with steroids, if we had some drug to make us super smart I imagine the cost would be the same, and I would be tempted by it.
Edit: after thinking, I would be afraid of the worst side effect of quitting, just like a steroid user would fear weakness, I would be afraid of my own stupidity
I have often described Ritalin and Concerta as mental steroids. (Haven't ever tried Modafinil and the others.)
Like steroids, they don't work for everybody and they can have side effects. But when taken in normal, doctor-prescribed doses, these drugs will enhance mental function -- including the ability to learn -- in normal adult subjects.
I still think I am pretty good at what I do, but there is absolutely no doubt that I was more productive as a computer programmer -- I learned faster, invented new solutions more quickly, was less prone to mistakes -- when I had a Ritalin prescription.
And I do feel a serious sense of loss not having that anymore. Sometimes when I'm sick of thinking about a problem and just want to veg out and read HN, I get furious, thinking about how if only I'd had a tab of Concerta that morning, the fucking problem I'm working on would already be solved by now.
I don't quite feel like Charlie in Flowers for Algernon, but it is in fact somewhat like that.
But when taken in normal, doctor-prescribed doses, these drugs will enhance mental function -- including the ability to learn -- in normal adult subjects
Modafinil is not to be toyed with. Far too powerful stuff. Common doses are 100mg or 200mg, far more than you can stomach without hitting the side effects rapidly and developing a dependence. A friend of mine takes it "about 4 days" a week because he's lost the ability to concentrate well for work otherwise; the long term effects remain unclear.
That said, I've tried it and at low doses it can certainly help with concentration and artificially prolonging your wakefulness/restfulness to the detriment of the next day. But there's clearly a detriment.
> Far too powerful stuff.
>
> Common doses are 100mg or 200mg, far more than you can stomach without hitting the side effects rapidly and developing a dependence.
Most people seem report the effect of modafinil as subtle and mild, to the point where it is unclear whether or not there's an objective effect on mental function at all (as opposed to being able to stay away - it is mainly prescribed for narcolepsy).
I've used it, and for my part 200mg does in no way trigger any of the side effects - it takes quite a bit more for that. Taking 200mg a couple of times a day for several days in a row does start to trigger some side effects. The upside, see also below, for me is that I can use it when I need extra work capacity and then just not take it the next day without feeling any desire to take it, nor any physical withdrawal symptoms whatsoever, unlike with caffeine. 200mg in one go is certainly not optimal for concentration for most people, though; smaller amounts spaces out seems to work better for people.
It's commonly reported by people using modafinil for nootropic effects that you develop a high tolerance very quickly, but this sounds like you're overgeneralising based on the experiences I see people having with it when it comes to dosage.
As for dependence, modafinil is popular with a lot of people exactly because it compared to things like e.g. caffeine is trivially easy to get off for most people. Caffeine at doses that feels like it gives the same level of effects as modafinil can be nasty both in side effects and withdrawal symptoms unless you carefully manage a tapered reduction in intake. Heck, I have more problems staying off chocolate than modafinil.
Yeah, I should have been more clear that I was only making that assertion about methylphenidate (Ritalin/Concerta).
I don't have significant experience with other cognitive enhancers, although I have tried many of the over-the-counter supposedly nootropic substances (none of which provided anything near the same level of cognitive improvement in my experience).
I'm extremely interested in Modafanil and whatever else we come up with in this area, though; unlike the OP's over-the-top and poorly-thought-through quest for big muscles (and a salable story), enhancing human cognition is a tremendously useful, worthwhile thing to do.
(Edit: I do actually think big strong muscles are actually pretty useful and worthwhile too; they're just not worth much risk in pursuing (since almost anybody can get fairly strong without injecting weird shit), and certainly not as much risk as this guy took.)
References? Well, if you trust that site as your source of medical information more so than first hand accounts, good luck to you.
Fundamentally, stimulant-resembling drugs of all kinds have side effects, and the detriments are predictably related to the drug's primary function. You can't cheat nature.
That site is half opine and pontification, with a discussion of how to acquire the stuff. If you want to trust that, go ahead.
Basics: Modafinil is a commercial product. Originally for army use, where the long term effects are secondary to the immediate utility. Who's doing the studies? Follow the money. Where does extra energy come from? Not nowhere. Some things don't need medical studies, because humans are not machines and activity out of regular patterns will have side effects.
if you haven't heard it, the Pal Erdős story is interesting.
Not only he was a great mathematician, he was also an amphetamine user for most of his life.
In 1979, he accepted a bet from a friend about quitting drugs for a month (his friends _were_ worried about him being a druguser).
Erdös won the challenge, but felt very stupid for the duration of the thing, declared that mathematics had been set back by a month and happily went back to amphetamine use.
> Edit: after thinking, I would be afraid of the worst side effect of quitting, just like a steroid user would fear weakness, I would be afraid of my own stupidity
This is "sort of" the plot of the classic sci-fi novel (and short story) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes: The main character who starts out below average intelligence, gets a treatment that causes his intelligence to shoot through the roof to well above normal levels, but then he is forced to face that it is only temporary.
Good, because that's the climax of, and the craziest thing that happens in the film. It's certainly the limit and it's well-placed in the context of the story. I like this movie, despite it's short-comings, more than I thought I would. I recommend it, even though it runs right up to my absurdity detector.
I think it would actually be harder to quit than steroids. I can't imagine being in some lucid state where you could solve almost any problem and then having to come back to down to some foggy haze where you can barely comprehend anything.
Vernor Vinge wrote about something called "Focus" in A Deepness in the Sky which explores that concept. People voluntarily become "focused" so they can have extreme concentration to solve difficult problems, but at the cost of neglecting everything else.
There was an episode in "Through the wormhole" where it showcased some experiments in how the subconscious mind can be utilized more. I bet this will become normal in coming decades.
Edit: after thinking, I would be afraid of the worst side effect of quitting, just like a steroid user would fear weakness, I would be afraid of my own stupidity