IQ Enhancement

This one is already here, just not adopted to any great degree. To be honest I have wondered and thought about whether I could or should take some kind of IQ enhancer. The down side is worrying about long-term side effects and sorting the effective treatments from the fakes. Nutritional supplements abound and are of dubious value. Experimental drugs are legion, but not yet released for general use. In much the same way that average life span has been increasing by decreasing childhood fatalities to infectious diseases -- IQ also has been creeping up in the world for decades, mostly due to better nutrition especially during the formative years of childhood.

The simplest way to gain a few points of IQ for both yourself and your children is to maintain a healthy diet. Moderate exercise helps also. DON'T assume children are just small versions of adults. Their dietary needs, especially for healthy brain growth, are different. A low-fat diet maybe good for adults trying to avoid coronary heart disease, but children need fats, oils, and cholesterol (cholesterol is a vital compound in the body, especially blood vessel linings, just not in excess). The myelin sheaths of our neurons are composed of 70% fat, and children, especially small children are laying these down at a ferocious rate. Of course not all fats are equal, and I'm not suggesting you take children to McDonalds frequently, but a balanced diet with whole milk and foods with healthy fats, oils, lipids and proteins are to be encouraged. Fish has these qualities, and fish is considered a good brain food in general for adults also. Fishes' Omega-3 fatty acids may, counter intuitively, be good for your overall cholesterol levels.

Still, diet will only add a few points of IQ at best, excluding populations where malnutrition is common (here it could make a HUGE difference). IQ measurement itself is a controversial topic and there is probably more than one kind of intelligence, and of course raw intelligence is no guarantee of happiness, success, or social acceptance. Still I think given a chance to painlessly and with few side effects, add say 10-50 points of IQ, most would. All indications in the lab are that this is achievable. Given how many people are gulping down supplements with dubious claims to the same effect, I've no doubt that true IQ boosters will be adopted quickly when they are finally released from the lab -- a huge percentage of the public feeling they need the edge either in school or work. IQ doping is especially common among college students these days, and by some estimates approaching 50%.

I don't think increased average IQ will lead to a safer more peaceful world. Greed and want seem independent of raw IQ -- perhaps the world will become more dangerous. But the ability to feed and clothe the population of the world should improve with a rise in average IQ, as more and more populations acquire the skills to be self sustaining and globally competitive. Granted bootstrapping is hard, and resources are needed, but one would have to assume that in this age where information has been unshackled by the internet, smart people everywhere will be more easily able to make the best of their circumstances whatever they may be.

It would be my guess that only 5-10% of the world's population has the raw intelligence to really contribute to finding solutions to current and future challenges. Which isn't to say that less cerebral contributions and work aren't needed also, and shouldn't be valued. But boost everybody's IQ by an average of 30 points and the number of people with the potential to do real knowledge work probably climbs to 50%. All the other challenges and advances postulated in this blog would almost certainly come more easily with a population that is in general smarter.

Ironically while many advances are held back by the old, the elderly will probably be the first to benefit from pharmacological IQ enhancers as doctors will prescribe the new drugs to them in an effort to maintain IQ levels that in general decline with age. Once proved safe and effective the IQ improving regimens will filter down to the younger as well, who as mentioned earlier, are already consuming unproven supplements now.

In general I disagree with most popular or populist authors about the consequences of science and advancement, most assuming some dread dystopia lies just ahead. IQ enhancement could be a Faustian bargain I have to admit. Morality probably has weak correlation with IQ. I won't even speculate whether the good would outweigh the bad with a much smarter (as measured by raw IQ) population. Most likely some things would be better and others worse. Society might become even more stratified. The one thing science seems incapable of producing is a sword with only one edge.

Here is how I would place the odds of over 50% of the developed world taking effective 10+ point boosting IQ supplements.
10 Years 10%
20 Years 40%
50 Years 90%
100 Years 99%

Current News on Enhancing IQ