Cognitive doping for intellectually demanding tasks: worth it?
February 8th, 2008 by joseThis comes at a time when I’m very concerned about what people can do under pressure and how m
uch they are willing to sacrifice for their careers. A friend in the tenure track (or the equivalent in the country she lives in) has lost two babies (natural abortion), probably due to stress. There are entire sections in the Chronicle sections describing the super-human efforts people make to achieve a small increase in academic performance. Having a decent social or family life seems like a luxury for more and more academics. Most people invest money and time in this endeavor in ways that are difficult to justify rationally (and we are talking about arguably the smartest sector of the population!).
Would you risk your health as well? Are you prepared to take mind-altering drugs?
Nature has an article on cognitive doping (here’s the direct link if you don’t want to jump through hoops to get it from your library). The topics has been covered in the blogosphere in different places: Shelley Batts, from the point of view of a grad student, says that taking cognitive-enhancing drugs is a no brainer.
Reader Tritc, in her comments section, wrote:
why would reducing study time be a bad thing? Wouldn’t we all love to have that extra productivity or extra hours of sleep rather than stare at the same page in a textbook, chugging coffee, stressing out, and barely keeping our eyes open? Has anyone considered that is might be unethically NOT to make something available that would reduce the time and effects of stressful all-nighters, if it increased productivity? Or unethical NOT to give it to tired doctors, who otherwise would be more prone to medical mistakes?
Dave Munger, asks whether it’s cheating to do cognitive doping, and seems to conclude it’s not.
There are some impressive testimonials from users. Take comment 19 on this Chronicle thread:
I won’t lie: I’ve got a secret weapon and I know it. Do I feel guilty about it? Absolutely not.
This is a person who is happy to have some condition that enables him to get the drug that gives him superpowers.
Finding the roots: too much work or just a particularly bad kind of work?
I think part of the problem is that many tasks we have to do are NOT easy to delegate. have no stats, but the proportion of academics with an administrative assistant must be ridiculous compared to even the lower cast of professionals in any other industry. How often do you find yourself doing things that only you can do? If you were a millionaire, which tasks would you pay people to do for you? My guess here is that there aren’t that many. This could help explain the incredibly high workload of academics worldwide, and the psychological pressure they experience.
My real concern with anti-fatigue drugs is that when they become commonplace there will be no choice- anyone NOT working 15 hours each day (‘cos you don’t need to ‘waste’ time on sleep anymore) will be a poor choice for an employee.
Not a happy thought, in times when the academic life may seem too demanding already!
Janet D. Stemwedel (whose nom de blog is Dr. Free-Ride) thinks that …
Even if cognitive enhancers had the potential to shift the standings in the competitions between students and between scholars to a dramatic degree, should we say that there’s a problem with the use of these drugs — or instead with the way the system is set up? Is it more unfair that some professors use a drug that gives them the mental energy to grade papers until 3 AM, or that the workload on professors is such that they have to stay up grading papers until 3 AM in order to have time to meet the obligations of their job?
Ethics
Imagine that you refuse to take any drugs, but a colleague who is up to his eyeballs in cognitive-enhancing drugs and competing with you for some resources (grant money; a better position, etc) leaves you in the dust. Would this make you change your view? Would you be able to ‘blow a whistle’ on this behavior at all (considering these are legal drugs)? Increasing the productivity threshold overall doesn’t benefit anyone. Just look at what is happening in professional sports; there, doping seems to be the norm, and athletes are risking their health and career in the long term.
Plus, drug taking may have consequences on the way societies work. From the Nature article:
There have been debates over the potential of such drugs to decrease or increase disparity in society. Even today many people benefit from their financial status to obtain a better education and nutrition that in turn can enhance brain power. Thus, the potential for cognitive enhancers to increase disparity in society would seem unavoidable.
Stemwedel thinks that we shouldn’t consider the academic endeavor a competition.
Even if cognitive enhancers had the potential to shift the standings in the competitions between students and between scholars to a dramatic degree, should we say that there’s a problem with the use of these drugs — or instead with the way the system is set up? Is it more unfair that some professors use a drug that gives them the mental energy to grade papers until 3 AM, or that the workload on professors is such that they have to stay up grading papers until 3 AM in order to have time to meet the obligations of their job?
The bright side of life (necessary reference) is that you may actually find something great that helps humanity while you are souped up on a high. The Nature article asks “Wouldn’t you maybe agree to become addicted to crack if you were going to be able to cure cancer?”
My position
I don’t take any kind of drugs because I don’t want my performance to be dependent on external factors. I don’t smoke, don’t drink, and don’t even use coffee. Now, if there’s one resource I can use in cases of extreme necessity, it’s mate. The high is similar to coffee, but without the jittering, headaches, and occasional visits to the WC. It’s also a lot easier to administer the right dosage: with coffee you either order one and drink it before it gets cold, or you don’t; with mate, you drink small sips, and you stop when you feel like.
This is really popular in South America, but not in 
EU and North America (that I can tell). It’s drank socially. You need a metal straw and hollow calabash gourd. This makes you look like you are carrying a small comic-like hand grenade on your hand and adds to the overall freak-out effect when you enter a common area with your mate the first time.
Poll
Do you use any cognitive-enhancing drugs?