Or would you like the guy at the next desk to be promoted ahead of you because he could afford to “enhance” his intelligence and you couldn’t?
For me and, I suspect, some of you, the answer to the headline question is a cautious yes. For most of us, however, I imagine the answer to the second question is a resounding “No!” So why do I ask?
NewScientist recently reported a study by a team of Dutch scientists which looked at the connections between different parts of our brains. The scientists found a link between how efficiently these links are laid out, and how intelligent we are. This link accounts for 30% of the variation in intelligence between the individuals in the study, so it seems to have a real effect.
The article ends with some well-founded speculation that if we come to understand what makes some people more intelligent than others, we can manipulate it.
Imagine the works of art we could create, or the technological advances we could make, if we could boost our intelligence. We could address the terrible problems facing the world, or even reach out to new worlds!
Unfortunately, this utopian vision is not the only possible outcome of such manipulation. It introduces the potential for great inequality in our society. If one day we can alter our intelligence by taking a pill, or select for intelligence amongst our unborn children, it will come (as these things always do) at a financial cost. The human race would be divided along new lines – the enhanced intelligences on the one side, and the rest of us on the other.
Neurobiology is a fascinating subject, which will help us to cure some awful illnesses and to learn so much more about human nature, but we need to think very carefully about where this particular path leads. We need to talk about the destination long before we get there. Otherwise human avarice will destroy what could be one of the most important medical leaps we ever take.
Intelligence is very important to me (when you’re the little kid who didn’t get picked for the cricket team, it’s all you’ve got), and to society. It is meaningless, however, without empathy.
What makes us human? Image Credit: Todd Preuss, Yerkes Primate Research Center
Hypothesis Now 