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Gene Therapy Turns Slackers Into Workaholics
DrLudicrous writes "According to a recent Reuters article, scientists have been able to cause monkeys to stop procrastinating by blocking the development of a dopamine receptor in the brain. The net result- the monkeys turned into workaholics. An article has appeared in the online version of Nature. Apparently, monkeys, just like human beings, tend to slack off on tasks until the very last minute. They become quite adept at judging how long they have till they absolutely must complete these tasks. The original article appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. An additional blurb appears here courtesty of Science Blog." NIH has a press release.
I think of it differently. I think of it as a possible augmentation. People are augmented in all sorts of ways now... glasses/contacts, prosthetics, artificial joints, etc. I have been diagnosed as severely ADD informally by many doctors. I agree with you that that is "just the way I am". Unfortunately, that, along with my shortsightedness and lactose intolerance interfere with my lifestyle. The other two minor thinks I've mentioned are fixed. I add bacteria to my gut daily, and I wear glasses when I need to see distances. I think of a drug or gene therapy to help with procrastination/slackness/ADD/whatever as yet another augmentation to help me live my life. I run my own business, and there aren't enough hours in the day without me spending time on Slashdot or even get side tracked with work related stuff that doesn't need doing at the time. For me, something like this, or a drug, would help *tremendously*. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a doctor since I either don't (think that I) have the time, or I always forget, or I put it off [yes, I know... very ironic]. I happen to *want* to be able to work more. As hard as I try, most days I look back and ask myself, "what in the hell did you spend all day doing?" So I see it as just another fix to help us live better, fuller lives, more the way that we want to live them.