Fending Off Dementia -- New Scientist Podcast -- Bio, Soc

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Imagine that staying mentally active could help fend off dementia. A 2005 New Scientist podcast goes into the details of research on this subject.

You know, though the benefits of conventional mental exercise doesn't always get the press (or the controversy) of human augmentation research (like genetic engineering), challenging mental activity seems to be extremely useful in maintaining your mental abilities as you age. Just as regular exercise is an obvious way to maintain your physical health. And a good diet seems to be a means of achieving both ends.

It's worth adding... this kind of "acceptable" human augmentation, using conventional means, helps point out just how blurry the line can be between mundane fitness and educational goals and dramatic human enhancement. How, really, do you make a clear distinction between the two if using accelerated learning methods like faster reading and Image Streaming, non-invasive technologies such as floatation/sensory deprivation tanks, and non-drug supplements such as vitamins, ginseng and ginkgo biloba can, in aggregate, help make you far, far smarter than you were before?

What happens if you don't stop at "okay" and make yourself "better than well?"

And how do we classify you (or celebrate you, or scorn you) if your methods fall outside of accepted definitions of human augmentation?

The point to remember is that not every life-or-death therapy or radical human transformation has to come from overt technological modification. A human can be dramatically modified -- made, in the view of some, "Not Human" -- without drugs, cybernetics, genetics or complete bodily recomposition. And in fact, we may end up with many humans who have strayed across that line before we know where we intend to draw it.

As Alice said in Wonderland, "Curioser and curioser."


Future Imperative