In response to the flood of prescription brain stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall on college campuses, a group of academics from Stanford, Harvard, Cambridge, Penn, and other schools say the time has come to allow such drugs to be prescribed to healthy people for “cognitive enhancement.” In a commentary published yesterday in Nature, they argue that such drugs, as well as future therapies like brain chips, should be viewed no differently than communications technologies or good sleep habits:

Human ingenuity has given us means of enhancing our brains through inventions such as written language, printing and the Internet. Most authors of this Commentary are teachers and strive to enhance the minds of their students, both by adding substantive information and by showing them new and better ways to process that information. And we are all aware of the abilities to enhance our brains with adequate exercise, nutrition and sleep. The [cognitive-enhancement] drugs just reviewed, along with newer technologies such as brain stimulation and prosthetic brain chips, should be viewed in the same general category as education, good health habits, and information technology — ways that our uniquely innovative species tries to improve itself.

They acknowledge but reject some of the more common ethical arguments that have been made against the prescription of smart pills:

Cognitive-enhancing drugs require relatively little effort, are invasive and for the time being are not equitably distributed, but none of these provides reasonable grounds for prohibition. Drugs may seem distinctive among enhancements in that they bring about their effects by altering brain function, but in reality so does any intervention that enhances cognition. Recent research has identified beneficial neural changes engendered by exercise, nutrition and sleep, as well as instruction and reading. In short, cognitive-enhancing drugs seem morally equivalent to other, more familiar, enhancements … Given the many cognitive-enhancing tools we accept already, from writing to laptop computers, why draw the line here and say, thus far but no further?

While recommending further study of the effects of cognition-enhancing drugs as well as the laws controlling their use, the authors, led by Henry Greely of Stanford Law School, “call for a presumption that mentally competent adults should be able to engage in cognitive enhancement using drugs.” They go further to suggest, in terms that seem almost Swiftian (Jonathan, not Tom), that the government should actively support the distribution and use of amphetamines and other types of brain-boosting drugs: “If cognitive enhancements are costly, they may become the province of the rich, adding to the educational advantages they already enjoy. One could mitigate this inequity by giving every exam-taker free access to cognitive enhancements, as some schools provide computers during exam week to all students. This would help level the playing field.”

That’s the economic playing field. I worry more, though, about the possibility of leveling the cognitive playing field, as institutionally supported programs of brain enhancement impose on us, intentionally or not, a particular ideal of mental function. In a long list of questions for further research, the authors make a glancing reference to this concern: “Do [these drugs] change ‘cognitive style’, as well as increasing how quickly and accurately we think?” Something tells me that once the idea of artificial brain “enhancement” becomes accepted, through writings like this Nature commentary, that question will end up being pushed aside. Will people worry about the subtleties of “cognitive style” if they sense that the person in the next dorm or office is getting an edge on them by popping smart pills?