Pill that boosts productivity gaining favor, raising concerns among medical ethicists

September 5th, 2008 By Steve Johnson

In a place like Silicon Valley, where career prospects often hinge on a person's intelligence and ability to work hellishly long hours, "brain doping" probably was inevitable.

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• drel - Sep 05, 2008
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  Using (abusing) a crutch like these pills may appear harmless until your body says ENOUGH! and your brain goes into "sleep-mode"...
  
  ... mean while your 7-series beamer or worse yet your crew cab pick-up crossed the centerline going 60mph and takes out your neighbors wife and kids.
  
  Unfortunately instead of being summarily executed, you most likely will just get 6-months suspended and a few weekends community service (if that).
  
  Get a life looser!
  
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• Catch - Sep 05, 2008
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  Learn to spell loser.
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• aussiecarter - Sep 05, 2008
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  People consume caffine during work, and caffine after work. Caffine is a drug that is accepted by society. What would it take for a new drug to be accepted into society? It would be very difficult for this to occur when people write the drug off as dangerous without much expereince with it.
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• Jayman - Sep 06, 2008
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  I am a software developer and I absolutely
  live on Modapro. It does not cause dependency
  and I am able to do without it on the weekends.
  But, on weekdays, it is a heaven-sent. I am
  able to work longer and more productively.
  Being in the wrong side of the thirties, I
  am able to keep up with the 20-somethings
  rather effortlessly. After 2 years on it,
  I have experience no side-effects whatsoever.
  
  
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• Gozar - Sep 06, 2008
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  The makers of provigil really are stepping up their advertising campaign.
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• NanoStuff - Sep 07, 2008
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  Summary: Ethicists believe it's unethical for people to make their own decisions. Meanwhile, awesome brain boosting pills are awesome.
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• Velanarris - Sep 08, 2008
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  Summary: Ethicists believe it's unethical for people to make their own decisions. Meanwhile, awesome brain boosting pills are awesome.

  
  
  Yeah that's about it. Oh, and drel has forgone the pills leaving him incapable of spelling the word loser.
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• artful - Oct 14, 2008
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  Unlike Jayman who is only on the "wrong side of the thirties", i'm on the wrong side of the forties and see something like having the ability to schedule one really productive day of work every now and then to be really cool. I would also like to try it while painting to see if it allows me to paint for much longer periods in the studio. Question though: Just how does one approach a physician with a request for something like this? I would think that it would be hard to fake narcolepsy or the other known use cases. Someone is writing scripts because this stuff sure seems popular.
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