So how to explain the glowing online reviews for smart drugs and their actual tested results? Sandberg chalks it up to the placebo effect. At a recent academic conference he attended, it turned out everyone at the table had tried modafinil. As everyone described their varied experiences with the drug, from mental stimulation to becoming more social, it became obvious at least some of the results were in their heads.
Still, it’s obvious there’s a large and growing market among people for drugs that enhance and sharpen the mind. And that means a public debate needs to get under way now, says Appel. As newer and stronger treatments for neurological disorders are developed, their effect on healthy individuals will grow more pronounced, as will pressure for everyone else to try them. “Eventually, employers will begin to demand that their employees accept neurological enhancement as a condition for employment and promotion—and the working stiffs of the world will not have the financial power to resist,” he wrote in his recent paper. “That’s a no-brainer.”
