As always, your Monday Links (I’m off to a slow start this morning, so they’re a little late):
- This article from the NY Times Technology section describes a really neat idea for an online marketplace that links inventors with corporate purchasers more efficiently:
The marketplace is an online registry that will have descriptions of inventions for browsing by prospective buyers. But it will have an unusual twist: before inventions are listed, the registry will provide in-person or online workshops to help inventors recast their often technical prose in jargon-free descriptions for the business and industrial customers that are expected to shop at the site
[...] Company software will [also] evaluate the invention’s probable cost to the buyer before the first sale as well as other business angles, and add the information to the capsule description.
- Ezra Klein points to a provocative article on the use of Provigil…a drug that essentially makes you smarter and more focused. As Ezra points out:
How, [the article's author] asks, is this any different than steroids? Well, assuming we had the long term data, and could prove the safety conclusively, you could also ask how it’s different than college, or preschool. It’s something you pay for that makes you smarter and more cognitively efficient. If I felt sure that it would never harm me, I’d probably pop them like candy. Enough people doing that, of course, and you create a collective action problem in which everyone needs to use them to keep up. It could be a problem. Or, in the future, it could just be the norm.
- TreeHugger highlights these gorgeous photos of the “rainbow iceberg” (photo at right): “The different layers are formed by algae (green) and sediments (yellow, brown), or by a rapid melting and freezing (dark blue).”
- Via EcoGeek, here’s a cool concept for serving disaster areas: a solar-power generating blimp that can fuel crucial needs like water pumps on the ground:
Though the airships are small by blimp standards, only 20 m long, they can house about 120 square meters of CIGS solar cells, producing up to 125 kWh / day. That’s enough energy to power 25 shallow water pumps, providing clean water for up to 12,000 people. Or enough to power 400 medical refrigerators.
- Congrats to all of the new graduates. Mental Floss reflects on 7 Memorable Commencement Addresses.
You know, I think the article discussing modafinil was a little over-enthusiastic. It’s more suited for people who have to say alert and watchful for long periods of time, rather than people who need to make better decisions. It would help night watchmen or troops on combat missions more than it would help a scientist or software developer. Johann took an over-the-top sensationalistic approach to his article, and probably has ended up hurting the overall discussion.
Modafinil won’t make you smarter, it won’t improve your memory, and it won’t raise your IQ. All it does is keep the need for sleep at bay for a little while. If he had such a huge effect, he was probably sleep-deprived during his use. If you read other accounts, they don’t speak in such glowing terms.
Not to mention that there are apparently safer, cheaper, and easier-to-get things available. If you’d like to know more, I recommend Smart Drugs and Nutrients.
I’m not at all an expert on these types of “Smart Drugs,” but what you say makes sense. I think many of us are consistently overworked and sleep-deprived, so I can see how some sort of pill that increased alertness would make someone feel smarter. I also imagine there’s an enormous placebo effect to taking these things: “here’s a drug that’s supposed to make me smarter….oh my god, I finished a book in one sitting…I AM smarter!”
For what it’s worth, I don’t plan on taking any kind of pill to make me smarter, and I’m honestly a bit worried about these things gaining in popularity–particularly if that means people are purchasing shady pharmaceuticals from overseas online. I’m admittedly completely new to this subject (it sounds like you, Mr. Gunn, know more about it), but my gut reaction is wariness and fear of abuse.
Yeah, I worry about abuse too, and accounts like his are basically encouraging abuse. Some senator’s kid is going to get his hands on some, stay up for 2 weeks, go absolutely crazy and kill someone or himself, and we’ll have some media hysteria and shiny new reactionary laws prohibiting anything vaguely resembling the stuff.
Congrats, Johann, you just set research on intelligence back 20 years. I personally think the time has come for seriously looking into whether or not the functioning of our brains can be augmented, but it’s not going to happen by tabloid columnists and bloggers ordering random shit over the internet and writing about how it made them feel.
Seriously now, there are some safe and sane things you can do, today, to help keep your mind young and maybe even to boost your memory or motivation a little. I encourage everyone to at least read about the topic, so they can form an educated opinion.
I completely agree, and I will certainly look into this topic further. It sure would be nice to have intelligent debate about these types of augmentations (if they’re legitimate) that moves past idiots who are trying to get good grades without effort, secure a better job without merit, etc. Thanks for your comments!