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Comment by ultramundane8 | Hacker News Reader

I may run into a lot of experts (from multiple fields) here on HN with strong opinions to the contrary, but here are my two cents.

If I could double my cognitive ability for 5 years, then die from an unknown complication with this type of therapy, I would do it without blinking an eye.

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it would be deeply ironic if, with your doubled cognitive ability, you realised that that was a bad bargain.

Haha, yes it would. But likely my ability would at least enable me to convince others of this discovery!

This is speculative, but it has been suggested that some people's thinking is so advanced that we can't understand what they are trying to do. [1] So it could be the case that what you try to convey once you reach that advanced state isn't comprehensible by normal people.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Genius_Theory

I think this gets played out with the "normal" population all the time....

Are you already over 60, or cognitively impaired?

If not, that's an awful lot of life to give up. What utility do you expect from doubling your cognitive ability? (Are the people you observe with far more cognitive ability than you always more happy/effective?)

You're also giving up value from the potential that the enhancement-without-death will become available in year 6.

That's sort of the choice Marco Pantani and Paul Erdős made (Pantani is the bike racer with the highest recorded power (sustained wattage) outputs in the Tour de France, and passed away at the age of 34. He is still recorded as the 1998 Tour and Giro d'Italia winner, not having been nabbed for any drug positives before the era of strict testing in the sport

http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/06/news/new-report-prese...

Erdős took amphetamines for the last 25 years of his life (he lived to 83)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s

I'm both a tCDS user and a Modafinil user. I'm 30, and don't mind trading life expectancy for higher cognitive function.

do you think you can develop (stronger) synesthesia?

That's the plan.

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