bpope’s blog

I read two very interesting articles in the past couple days.  The first an interview in Technology Review, and the second the Science article (an editorial) written by the interviewee.  The subject of both pieces are the moral and social consequences or cognitive enhancing drugs.  The conclusion of the Science authors is that:

According to the piece, written by a group of ethicists, psychologists, and cognitive neuroscientists, “cognitive enhancement, unlike enhancement for sports competitions, could lead to substantive improvements in the world.” While opponents have argued that the use of performance-enhancing drugs is unfair and could undermine the value of hard work, the authors say that these drugs fall into the same category as more common efforts to increase brain function, such as drinking a cup of coffee, or getting a good night’s sleep, and thus should be regulated accordingly.

My knee jerk reaction was WAIT, wouldn’t that just coerce everyone who hopes to be competitive in academia or the workplace to take the cognitive enhancing drugs?  Then I thought about it some more…is that so much of a bad thing?  Many military personal are required to take certain drugs to improve their performance and concentration levels.  As the authors argue, would it be so different to ask surgeons to do the same?

Of course, this is a tremendously complex subject, but I think it depends heavily on the effects of these medications: will it harm the user in either the short term or the long term? If not, then maybe it makes sense to de-regulate these mental performance enhancing drugs.  I think the authors of the commentary in Science put together a very well written piece, well worth reading (at least the bits in bold).

After all, what’s the point of having a technology if you can’t use it for good?

From the program of Alex d’Arbeloff’s remembrance ceremony today:

Let me die, working.
Still tackling plans unfinished, tasks undone!
Clean to its end, swift may my race be run.
No laggard steps, no faltering, no shirking;
Let me die, working!

Let me die, thinking.
Let me fare forth still with an open mind,
Fresh secrets to unfold, new truths to find,
My soul undimmed, alert, no question blinking;
Let me die, thinking!

Let me die, giving.
The substance of life for life’s enriching;
Time, things, and self on heaven converging,
No selfish thought, loving, redeeming, living;
Let me die, giving!

I think this poem expresses excellent sentiments, sentiments that I feel describe not only Alex d’Arbeloff, but other admirable leaders.  The first to spring to my mind was my father.  While my father was not the founder of Teradyne or the Chairman of the MIT Corporation, he was the founder of Pope Engineering Company and the Scoutmaster of Troop 205.  While more people will notice the Alex’s passing, we cannot forget the leaders in our everyday lives, for the world could not function without them.

(This post was inspired by the fact that I was directing someone to pictures from Antarctica, a website I hadn’t visited in at least a year and a half.)
3 years ago, when I traveled to Antarctica, I was asked to keep a photo journal and write entries for a website every few days or so.  So, I drew the outline of what I wanted my website to look like, and how I wanted things posted, and the BSA’s webmaster dealt with the rest.  All I had to do was post photos and text to an FTP site and he did the rest.  Looking back, what strikes me now is that during that entire process (4 months of planning and 4 months of travel) not once was the word “blog” mentioned.

Contrast that to today: you can’t go an entire day (at least, in the community that I am part of) without hearing the word several times, reading posts from several other blogs, or posting to one yourself.  It’s incredible that everything that I asked an ‘expert’ to take care of just a couple years ago, anyone can do now.  What’s even better is that current tools allow for the process to not only be easier, but also better!  Whether you use wordpress, blogger, or some other tool, it has become exceedingly simple to publish as much or as little as you want with minimal effort.

If you’re still reading right now (and I’m going to guess that maybe 2 people are/will), you’re thinking…”yeah, no kidding…web publishing tools are growing exponentially, now you can post from literally anywhere with mobile applications” which leads me to the really cool part of this…what are the possibilities in another 3 years?  will people continue to push to more easily share more and more of their lives?  I’m going to guess the trend will be towards compartmentalizing what is shared, and directing information such that it is more easily shared with certain target groups of people.  (Of course, if there’s a way to monetize publishing on a personal level, that would be huge too.)