Many Scientists Using Performance Enhancing Drugs

docinthemachine is one of several readers to send word of a new poll published in Nature showing unprecedented levels of cognitive performance-enhancing drug abuse by top academic scientists. The poll, conducted among subscribers to Nature, surveyed 1,400 scientists from 60 nations (70% from the US). 20% reported using performance-enhancing drugs. Among the drug-using population, 62% used Ritalin, 44% used Provigil, and 15% used beta-blockers like Inderal. Frequency of use was evenly divided among those who used drugs daily, weekly, monthly, and once a year. All such use without a prescription is illegal.

Comments

while i don't

[circletimessquare]

prescribe to freudian psychology, let me use it as an example of why you are wrong for the sake of simplisitic analogy, just to get my point across:

say everyone has an id, an ego, and a superego

that sum total is you

say you smoke some doobage, your superego is reduced, allowing your id to predominate

that's not the real you, that's you, minus your superego

duh

the real you is let out when you sublimate a part of yourself? no, wrong: its not a moral or prudish observation, its a logical one- your superego is as much as part of you as your id

so if you sublimate your id, you are less of yourself, you are infact, blotting part of yourself out, not freeing yourself of some artificial imposition. what are you freeing yourself from? something that part of you!

your understanding of who and what you are is wrong

drugs are different than equipment

[circletimessquare]

at the least, different in the mind of the spectator

the whole reason sports are interesting is because it is about human struggle leading achievement. the spectator identifies with the struggle

if the athlete is using drugs, you sever that psychological connection, because the drug is seen as making the struggle easier. equipment doesn't do that psychologically

so if you had a sport where drugs were 100% legal, what you would have is an immediate drop off in interest in that sport, which would fade away. meanwhile, the fans would move on to some other sport that was more "authentic", meaning, they got more out of it by watching it