Poll: Would the super-drug be worth it?

[Naheal]

If the situation calls for it, I'd be using the shit out of this drug.

 

[Naheal]

Edit: stupid double post

 

[godfist88]

if i could use my new found intelligence to better man kind. yes, but only once in a while so that i don't die right away.

 

[TheEldestScroll]

i wouldn't take it. i'm perfectly content with mediocrity.

 

[Elamdri]

You would probably be interested in the Andromeda Strain. There is a scene in the book where one of the doctors studying the virus gets trapped in the room when the seals fail. He panics and asks to be given a drug called Kalocin. Apparently, there had been some secret medical breakthrough where a pharmaceutical company discovered a miracle drug that killed anything on a microscopic scale in the human body. However, in doing so, it essentially turned off the human immune system, and when subjects stopped taking it, they started dying to all sorts of strange diseases that no one had ever seen before because humanity had become immune to them.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I would take a pill that halved my lifespan but didn't age me if it had the same effects.

 

[Mr.Numbers]

If I had that intelligence I'd probably be able to cure, if not reverse, the negative effects. At the very least clone myself a replacement body and give it a cybernetic brain?

 

[Denamic]

I'd give it to top scientists in interesting and important fields of science.
Like medicine and quantum physics.

Besides, the smarter you are, the unhappier you are, statistically speaking.

 

[Firia]

In my final days, I might. As I race towards my own mortality, I'd consider popping a pill just to revitalize myself, finish anything that needs finishing with the enhancement on my cognitive abilities my aged self wouldn't normally have.

Yaknow, assuming popping the pill doesn't cause me to kneel over right then and there.

 

[Ladette]

I don't see much reason to, i'm pretty happy with what I have going right now. Becomming super smart and making a lot of money would be nice, but I make enough money to support my lifestyle as it is, and I want to be alive to enjoy things.

 

[Jordi]

This is the kind of problem Odysseus faced in the Odyssey. In the end he chose the shorter, glorious life over a long, bland one.

Don't you mean Achilles from the Iliad? It's similar, but it seems that Achilles' ratio of costs and benefits was much better, since he probably "only" sacrificed two thirds of what would have been his long, bland life. In other words: he only sacrificed two, maybe three, bland weeks for one awesome week of being awesome. The drug has a ratio of 26:1 at best and 208:1 at worst.

I'd take Achilles' choice, but I probably wouldn't take the drug. For one thing, I doubt even a super genius could accomplish much in a week (although I guess I could take drug multiple times). The most important reason for me though is that it just seems that it would be really hard to go back to my normal life after having taken it, and while I don't really care if my life is somewhat shorter, I can't even take this drug for a year before dying.

 

[GeorgW]

I'd use it when it's needed. Not sure when that would be though...