Better living through chemistry

I read this
recent article about a drug called Provigil, which restores alertness and lets
one go without sleep.  (temporarily.)  Discoveries like this excite me;
on a very visceral level, I’m a big fan of life-style drugs.  Maybe I’ve
read too many science fiction books, but it just seems obvious to me that if science
can come up with ways to enhance how we feel, how we think, how we exist – we
should take advantage of it.

Now, intellectually, I know there are problems that my overly-optimistic gut does
not acknowledge.  For example, some worry that the advantages these medicines
might bestow would only be the domain of the rich.  That one doesn’t really
bother me – I know that today’s $1000 pill is tomorrow’s over-the-counter
prophylactic.  On the other hand, I am genuinely concerned about a lack of testing
and possible side-effects; we don’t need another Thalidomide.

In the end, though, I go with my gut, and say – “that’s cool!”

(link to the article found at BoingBoing.)