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Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried

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Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried

#11
post #6

If something can make your body better without adverse effects, it is already there. You are not smarter than 3.5 billions of life evolution, period.

Well, you're a product of that, so your brain being able to come up with methods of augmentation that are faster than waiting for the "evolutionary process is the 3.5 billions of life evolution" is a product of all that evolution

We make our body better all the time, sometimes there are adverse effects, but that's just more to work on

Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried

#12
post #6

If something can make your body better without adverse effects, it is already there. You are not smarter than 3.5 billions of life evolution, period.

Evolution doesn't find a global optimum. It probably doesn't even find a local optimum, because constantly changing environments create a moving target for selection pressure.

Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried

#13
I'm actually a PhD student studying this exact technology in Germany. I can say without a doubt that this type of stimulation has proven potential in enhancing cognitive functions (if proper protocol and safety aspects are respected). This is a really exciting field which I think will really explode in the next few years once the montage and paradigms are optimized (which is exactly what I'm working on!)

Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried

#14
post #6

If something can make your body better without adverse effects, it is already there. You are not smarter than 3.5 billions of life evolution, period.

I get what you're saying, and basically agree. But... A) how much of an adverse effect? And B) Plenty of medical procedures can "make your body better without adverse effects" (at least not as adverse as the medical condition continuing on unchecked).

Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried

#15
post #7

I am convinced that at some point some smart sod will figure out how to create a 'high' by using something along the lines of this. Put on a headband, flick the switch, and blam! high as a kite. Turn the switch off, and back to being sober. When that happens, the world will change in a very unpredictable way. Billions, perhaps trillions of dollars that are part of the drug trade will suddenly have no where to go. All…

Something like it exists (or is claimed to exist)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_helmet

Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried

#17

I'm actually a PhD student studying this exact technology in Germany. I can say without a doubt that this type of stimulation has proven potential in enhancing cognitive functions (if proper protocol and safety aspects are respected). This is a really exciting field which I think will really explode in the next few years once the montage and paradigms are optimized (which is exactly what I'm working on!)

Can you point to some (respected) publications on the field that can prove cognitive enhancement?

Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried

#19
post #6

If something can make your body better without adverse effects, it is already there. You are not smarter than 3.5 billions of life evolution, period.

Really? The polio vaccine made my body better without adverse effects, and there are literally hundreds of other examples.

Evolution is a process, not an endpoint - - it seems highly unlikely that no further improvements to the human body are possible.

Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried

#20

I may run into a lot of experts (from multiple fields) here on HN with strong opinions to the contrary, but here are my two cents. If I could double my cognitive ability for 5 years, then die from an unknown complication with this type of therapy, I would do it without blinking an eye.

it would be deeply ironic if, with your doubled cognitive ability, you realised that that was a bad bargain.
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