Re: First replicable human IE?

From: Michael Roy Ames (michaelroyames@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Jun 21 2003 - 18:25:43 MDT


If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

I have sporadically conducted a very similar experiment with identical
results from time to time, but instead of an expensive 'transcranial
magnetic stimulator' (TMS) I have used a cheap bottle of beer. A small
dose of alcohol shuts down the brain a little, and mental performance
seems to go up for a short while, only 20 - 40 minutes on average. My
experiment consistently gives intelligence-enhancing results if
conducted only once in any 12 hour period and with only one bottle of
beer, any more frequently or any larger quantity, and my brain shuts
down too much, causing mental performance to go down. Unfortunately,
after the beer 'wears off', there is a period where my mental
performance seems impaired... so I don't use this type of intelligence
enhancement unless I'm really *stuck* on something. (There are other
drugs that have similar short-term effects on the brain, alcohol is just
the most obvious and legal one)

Michael Roy Ames
(who has just failed to find a TMS on eBay)

---- Original Message ----
From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com>
To: <sl4@sl4.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2003 5:38 PM
Subject: First replicable human IE?

>
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/magazine/22SAVANT.html?pagewanted=all
>
> The usual caveats about journalism apply... but... this is pretty
> cool. (IE == "intelligence enhancement")
>
> --
> Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://intelligence.org/
> Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence



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