In an earlier blog, I talked about a concept called “Biohacking”. These are things that a person tries to do to increase physical and mental performance, life span, and brain function. The term sounds like something out of a Sci-Fi movie.  Biohacking is not necessarily good or bad, it just depends on what a person is trying to do.

Back in my day, the safer version of biohacking was called lifestyle changes. You know, you slept, ate properly, exercised and had good relationships with others.

The more dangerous version of biohacking at that time was called being a druggie, and many of us can think of several friends and family members who are no longer with us because of adverse reactions to drugs and medications. It was simply experimentation that went bad- really bad.

A few nights ago I started to watch a show on Amazon called Smart Drugs,  but after a few minutes I was so outraged I shut the TV off and have been ranting about it ever since. More on this later.

Originated from the Greek Noos meaning mind and the French Trope meaning turning, Smart Drugs are called Nootropics and many of them like caffeine, nicotine, and several proteins and herbs are naturally occurring, while synthetic medications such as Adderol and Ritalin are not.

It is believed that the right combination of nootropics will make a person’s brain function better, be smarter, reason better, remember and function almost like a machine. In fact, in this type of nootropic culture, man is considered little more than a machine, a computer, a robot that can be programmed by these drugs to levels of superhuman intelligence. One can be an isolated robot and exist only to compute. Sounds fun! Oh, and one other problem… a man can not exist alone.

At any rate, the show Smart Drugs is about some British guy who travels to San Francisco and the Silicon Valley to find the right combination of smart pills that will address his overwhelm and feeling burnt out by life. He attempts a number of drugs including an amphetamine that kept him awake for 3 straight days! The guy truly is an idiot, and throughout the show describes his self absorbed, isolated life where he has no time to sleep, or time for relationships, or time to eat or exercise.

To me, why didn’t he just start getting some sleep, or thinking about others and enjoy relationships and companionship, start some exercise or eat better? NOOOOOOOOOO- there has to be some combination of pills that can substitute interacting with life, and enjoying being alive to make him feel more alive, right? It’s just idiotic! If he just shut the go, go, go crap down for 5 minutes and asked another how they were doing, he would have cured himself, and with NO SMART PILLS!

To read about the rest of the story, check into the next blog!