So much potential, or so we used to say

[alexsarll]

Before I forget, anyone for Beautiful & Damned on Thursday?

You know those dinky little cars that get used as mobile CCTV points? Saw one of them going through a pedestrian crossing's green man this morning. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Enjoyed a languid afternoon in the park yesterday, with a remarkably high general standard of banter; it was like the Algonquin Round Table come again, except that I suspect they may have devoted slightly less time to paedophiles and crack. Then on via a sighting of a truly freakish bug to the pub, which I eventually left via the window. Twice.

If anyone fancies making the picture here into an icon for me, I would be profoundly grateful. Ta, beingjdc. Will Magnus is my new hero.

A new generation of smart drugs seem from initial results to breed genuine increases in human mental capability. So obviously, some people are against them. Why are so many members of this species intent on shoring up the walls that imprison them?

Comments

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Damn fool shape, that picture, see.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Shame about the file size limits on LJ.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Just what I was after! Many thanks.

[blanche-carte.livejournal.com]

Beautiful & the Damned - not been in much too long. So Thu - yes, I think so.

[blanche-carte.livejournal.com]

The concern about the "smart drugs" is understandable as it could lead to greater elitism on financial and health grounds.

Fair enough, some people will choose not to take the drugs. But others may get stuck in dead-end occupations or with poor results on their courses if they can't afford the pills. And others will get adverse reactions that are too severe for them to keep taking the stuff.

But in any case, all this report will determine is quite how widespread this will become how fast, and how people obtain their Modafinil, or its successor: down the chemist like a pack of Pro-Plus, or via slightly more underhand means.

Though it will evidently take a while for the longer-term effects to be known, which will influence the endurance of these drugs as a phenomenon. (I'm considering how many people I know who' stopped taking E because of the horrible depressions they started to get after comedown.)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well yes but...gyms can increase elitism on financial grounds. Books can increase elitism on financial grounds. Not to mention every other scientific advance in history, almost all of which have started out as playthings of the elite before becoming, over a generation or two, more or less ubiquitous. Doesn't excuse keeping everyone down at the lowest level in the meantime.

Certainly there do seem to have been various undesirable medium-to-long-term consequences with E, but I think it likely that they would at the very least have been noted earlier and perhaps ameliorated without the ludicrous apparatus of prohibition pushing manufacture and distribution into unregulated, criminal hands.

And based on my own experience and that of some of my university peers, raw brainpower (whether natural or, presumably, enhanced) is no guarantee whatsoever that one won't get stuck in a dead-end job...

[blanche-carte.livejournal.com]

Indeed, legal, regulated and (mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!) TAXED would be a good option for pretty much all drugs, including this sort of thing.

But the arrival of yet another factor arriving to (potentially) exacerbate inequalities in society is hardly heartening. I don't like it, but there's only so much that can really be done. Quite possibly, the allergic kids who don't want to compete head-to-head with their chemically enhanced peers will get extra time in exams, alongside the ones with dyslexia. ...And allergic dyslexic ones spend the length of the summer holidays in the exam hall...

But there is a point where coddling stops, presuming that careers continue to operate pretty much as they do now. So certain fields of work may be closed off more emphatically than they are now, to people who aren't taking this stuff. 48-hour opt out - check. Sign to say you'll take those pills - check.

Saying that, I later listened to the radio programme and wondered if this was all being overegged somewhat. Life without caffeine (as I have to do) is a bit irksome, but it's certainly possible. But then I never wanted to become a City corporate lawyer. *shrug*

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Taxation would be the obvious idea from all standpoints bar the (worthless, and therefore fit only to be ignored) Puritan hangover. Money to the government, money not spent on futile law enforcement, and it would probably still be cheaper for the users too, as well as removing a revenue stream which supports activities that should be criminal.

Don't get me started on the 48-hour opt out. It should be just that, an OPTION - and the business world should be aware on how low British productivity is per hour compared to eg France, and how little the long hours culture serves to accomplish anything except placate the same ghastly, apparently undying puritanical strain as is to blame for the drugs laws.

About the only thing I can accomplish without caffeine is making the tea. And that only through long practice.

[ksta.livejournal.com]

how long does the damnation go on until? I will be working till 22:45 in white city.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Until 12.30, so I'm not sure how viable that would be...

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

That bug was CUTE. I'm probably doing B&D this time around, yes.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

You are 1 x mental. Also, though obv I am glad you're coming out, I thought you had negative pennies atm?

[teamwoolf.livejournal.com]

I am just itching to get to Beautiful and Damned. Sadly, I won't be able to make it this time. But next time, I just have to go.

And as a nice antithesis to your mention of "smart drugs", I saw on TV just the other day that the new craze with Da Kidz is to get high off the fumes of burning wheelie bins. I have no idea what happening to hanging round in bus shelters sharing a bottle of 20/20 between your whole form class. Kids today, eh? Tsk.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did see mention of this recently - but haven't people been doing that at the Leeds Festival for years now?

At university there was a persistent but never realised plan for a 20/20 party. If nothing else, it would be one up the nostalgia scale from SchoolDisco...

[teamwoolf.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, so true.

Oh, how amazing. I'm surprised it's not already happened!

[alexdecampi.livejournal.com]

I may be on for B&D. Let's do our usual pre-going-out texting thing on the afternoon, to check we both still feel like going.

[alexdecampi.livejournal.com]

Oh, and relating to a post some time ago, I saw Laurel Collective at Blow Up a few weeks ago and they were distinctly mediocre live - amusingly, I think my memory was, "like Kunta Kinte, only sh1te."

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

So there's definitely a certain similarity of approach. Perhaps it just depends which one sees first?

Agreed re: B&D organisation.