One of those things that make me go, “Hmmmm”.

Now that I have some free time to read the many news feeds on my Google reader I came across this headline this morning, “Mind-enhancing drugs: Are they a no-brainer?” I’m not sure what to think about the ethics professor who find this ethical behavior, but we are a hyper-competitive culture.  It strikes me like the old story of Jekyel and Hyde.  Questions arise:

  • Is this another example of science outpacing our ability to determine what is ethical, right, or just?
  • How much should we jump the evolution cycle via a drug to improve humanity.  Yes, there is a difference between ‘enhancing’ male ED and change the chemical balance in the brain to make someone smarter for a moment or a day.  Did you see the old Disney film, “The Strongest Man in the World”?
  • Would these drugs make public education even harder and more segregated than it is today?  Some could afford the prescriptions, some the black market, and some not.  And how would you measure how students are learning across gender and race?

Here is a excerpt of the article.  Click above to read the entire article.

“In the middle of the exam season, the offer of a drug that could improve results might excite students but would be likely to terrify their parents. Now, a distinguished professor of bioethics says it is time to embrace the possibilities of “brain boosters” – chemical cognitive enhancement. The provocative suggestion comes from John Harris, director of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics.”

, 06/20/2009. Category: Culture.

Countdown to a Move

So, we are doing the things that you do before you move.  Set up new utilities in Virginia.  Sort, filter, pack up the office.  We have a contract on our home here in Kentucky.  We feel lucky.  If the inspection is good, our house would have been on the market 48 days.  I know people who still have their homes in other cities on the market and are now counting into a new year wondering if the house will sell.  I don’t know how you make two mortgage payments or even a mortgage and rent these days.  If all the paperwork goes through we will have one ‘double’ month before we close in Virginia.  The house in Virginia is great.  Again, we feel lucky to have found it and are able to get a mortgage for it.

Packing up provides laughter, good tears, and the opportunity to sort and filter what goes from this place to the next.  In my life I have moved eight times, not including different jobs during the summers in college.  And, during all those moves I can count 21 different apartments, town houses, or houses that have been home.  Some stuff is given away, some sold, some just thrown out each time.  It is part of the process.  My parents tell me that there are a couple boxes of my stuff in their barn in Texas, and wonder if I will or my sister for that matter ever claim same.  As we countdown to a move we are, I am taking the time to sort, filter, laugh, and weap a little.  It is cleansing.

, 06/10/2009. Category: Michael D.
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