STUDENTS SAY NO TO INTELLIGENCE PILLS

BETHESDA, MD — Pills to make people smarter are expected to become available in the future, but would you take them?

Sociologist Daniel Rigney put the question to 1,000 students at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, and 80% said no.

"The smart pill question will not go away," Rigney says. "The continual creation of new substances with psychoactive effects will bring the issue of pharmaceutically enhanced intelligence increasingly into public view and debate."

Some student reactions:

Smart pills are "intellectual steroids" and create competition that is unfair.
Smart pills will widen the gulf between the intellectual haves and the have-nots.
Smart pills will mean the end of human motivation.
Enhanced intelligence might be used for nefarious purposes.
Human intelligence is a divine gift and shouldn’t be tampered with; it’s akin to "playing God."

Rigney’s findings are in the March-April 2004 issue of THE FUTURIST, available for $4.95 at bookstores and newsstands and from the World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814.

EDITORS: For more information contact Clifton Coles at 301/656-8274; fax 301/951-0394; e-mail ccoles@wfs.org.
2/25/2004