<p>Let say if there was a smart pill and it allowed people to think faster and more efficiently, basically a performance enhancement drug… Would it be considered cheating? Because steroids are considered performance enhancement drug, why shouldn’t smart pills?</p>
<p>I would consider it cheating. As much as I advocate pursuit of knowledge, artifcially altering one’s mental or physical state (unless disabled in some way) seems unethical to me.</p>
<p>Yes! Another “Ethical Question” for my psychology journal, thank you.</p>
<p>Seriously, it all comes down to ethics. In a school setting, I don’t think it’s unfair at all, but in a standardized test setting…perhaps we’ll need intelligence enhancing drug tests administered before the real test in order to maintain somewhat of a state of equality. People are given drugs to artificially alter the way they think all the time, but they have previously been diagnosed with a disorder. This should be necessary before those drugs are prescribed, but abusing them to obtain some form of super-knowledge and use it unfairly seems a bit unethical.</p>
<p>I remember having to answer a similar essay question in 8th grade after reading Flowers for Algernon.</p>
<p>^ i loved that book! the movie was just ok though…</p>
<p>In my opinion it isn’t cheating and I would not resent a classmate who did it. There is no such thing as a smart pill that will increase your intelligence. If there were, I would consider that cheating and unfair practice. But in reality, every single “smart pill” out there has drawbacks and imitations. Taking Adderall, for example, might improve your concentration and help you study better, but it will not automatically put the material in your head and process it for you. You still have to make the effort to understand the material and apply it on homework and tests. It’s just like a strong cup of coffee in my opinion. It’ll help you get your work done but it won’t do your work for you, because it won’t help you grow any brain cells. It won’t make you smarter. In fact, performance-enhancing drugs like Adderall and Ritalin (which are amphetamines) and meth will end up harming you and reducing your intelligence and creativity. And as the drugs wear off, they make you feel crappy. Ask anyone who does them. They are by no means magic smart pills. Those simply don’t exist.</p>
<p>There are additional details to consider regarding the “smart pill”, such as the side effects, risks, availability, cost of production, and duration as well as magnitude of its desired effects. For example, anabolic steroids, though efficacious in promoting muscle growth, are stigmatized and tightly controlled mainly due to their potential to harm the user. If these hypothetical smart pills were able to be entirely effective and risk free, I believe they would be 100% legal. They would be picked up by the drug companies and sold for exorbitant profits. Now, consider the economic and social ramifications. The demand component would always be present (everyone wants to be intelligent), and therefore two distinct outcomes would be possible based on supply: if availability of the pills is high, everyone will take the drug regularly. Society will be expected to constantly be under the drug’s effects in order to maximize output and efficiency (think Soma, from Brave New World). If availability is low, only the highly affluent will be able to afford them. Society will be dichotomized by the emergence of a new upper class of smart, wealthy individuals who will dominate the rest of society. They will occupy the highest positions in the academic, political and corporate atmospheres, easily justified by their “enlightened” status. The lower, working class, in agreeing with the simple reasoning of their new overlords, will see their conditions deteriorate rapidly.</p>
<p>lol who cares? SMART PILL = WIN!</p>
<p>The thing is that school is meant to prepare you for the real world, and if you’re Special Agent Jack Bauer, you won’t be able to pick up these smart pills from the drug store every month, so one should mainly deal without them to train for real life situations such as this.</p>
<p>Well, that was half sarcastic, but I’m just naturally uncomfortable about a “smart pill.”</p>
<p>but would u consider being born really smart and with a killer memory cheating? the “smart pill” would then just make everyone equal</p>
<p>No, because being born intelligent is not within Bauer’s control. Taking a drug is entirely in his control, unless some random guy sneaks it into his food or he’s mentally incapacitated. I suppose, if you subscribe to hard determinism, then it’s not. Let’s not get into that.</p>
<p>No it’s not cheating, but it’s just pointless map hacking and a waste of money IMO…I’d rather take a pill that would enable me to jump 4 feet in the air lol</p>
<p>It’ll be like the cheat codes to life!</p>
<p>UP, UP, DOWN, LEFT, UP, DOWN, RIGHT - INVINCIBILITY
DOWN, UP, LEFT, RIGHT, RIGHT, LEFT, DOWN - MAX HEALTH
RIGHT, RIGHT, LEFT, DOWN, DOWN, UP, RIGHT, LEFT - SPAWN PERFECT BOY/GIRL
LEFT, UP, DOWN, DOWN, UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT - CLEAR LEVEL(HIGH SCHOOL) </p>
<p>Try it! If it doesn’t work, you’re probably doing it wrong. Just try again and again.</p>