Something is about to happen which is not in the best interest of the people. Sometimes things sound good when we read about them, but when we give them a little more thought we realize they are the complete opposite of good. In case you are wondering what I am talking about, it is the creation of people with superior intelligence. You might ask the question, “Why does he feel this way?” The answer would be I know what life is like and knowing this who do you think would get the benefits of this intelligence? It would be those with huge wealth, corporate golden boys and others who are in the elite class. Where would this leave the rest of us you might ask? The way I see it, we would be out in the cold. The elite class would be getting superior intelligence when we would get nothing. Talk of improved intelligence has been going on for years, it is nothing new and I have written about some aspects of it in the past.

There are several different methods being proposed and there could be more I don’t know about. One method would be gene modification. Different fictional stories have been written about this and at the time of their writing the idea was merely science fiction. One of them was Flowers for Algernon in which a man with a 60 I.Q. had his I.Q. raised to 200. Unfortunately for him he eventually reverted back to his original state. There are areas in our DNA which have been identified as regions which can affect our intelligence. Finding these areas was the first step in increasing intelligence. Scientists had thought since there were so few areas associated with this they could increase a person’s I.Q. substantially by altering even on area, but this was not to be. There was something we didn’t know. Some scientists now think there are at least 10,000 alternative forms of a gene caused by a mutation which control our I.Q. They are known as alleles. Since the number is really not known yet, it could be way off base by an unknown factor. Maybe there is even some other method of genetically increasing I.Q.s we haven’t learned about yet?

Another method for increasing intelligence is one which has been mentioned a lot more in the news than the one above and this is mechanically enhancing intelligence in someone by using computer chips and such and putting them into their body. I certainly could be wrong, but it seems this method is more advanced than the prior method at the moment. There are actually some people who have put chips and small board under their skin. While this was not yet for increasing intelligence, but for other reasons it does lay some of the ground work for using some type of computer brain connection. A person can seem to be a lot smarter if they can access a database, even if their I.Q. isn’t increased. Some say it is more important to make the world’s information readily available for instant viewing by our brains than to increase our I.Q.s. I guess they could have a point, but it depends on how you look at things. If I were able to instantly get the information on any subject, I might be able to use it to design bridges or treat people medically without any formal training at all. People might think I was a genius.

There is a school of thought by some scientists that intelligence can be increased chemically. It is hard to know if a drug is actually increasing intelligence or memory. Increased memory can seem like increased intelligence. There is a group of drugs known as smart drugs. On such drug is piracetam. It is said it increases the intellectual processes of the brain along with memory. Modafinil is another smart drug. The journal European Neuropsychopharmacology states modafinil helped users complete more complex forms of thinking and consolidating memory. The good news is it was said to have few negative side effects. There was some insomnia, headaches and nausea reported however. It has been said these drugs do not offer permanent increases in intelligence only temporary ones.

There is move on to increase intelligence by brain training. It is hard to believe, but it seems we may be able to exercise our brains and everyone knows exercise is good for our bodies. Unlike our muscles which we pit against heavy weights to make them bigger and more effective, our brain would require mental exercise. It was reported in a 2008 study, training for ten hours on a working memory task known as the Adaptive Dual N-Back task improved intelligence and here is an even stranger part of this, when a completely different cognitive task was attempted there were improved scores in that task. It seems the exercise increases intelligence across the board. Many scientists do not accept these results. I had heard one could never improve on prior I.Q. scores, but having done this myself I knew it wasn’t true. The reason there are so many critics of this particular brain exercise is the fact the results were never repeated. There could be a few different reasons for this. One might be it doesn’t work for everyone. Another might be too small of a sample.

Another way some scientists think intelligence can be improved is by a better environment. Raising a child in a comfortable intellectual environment is said to produce more intelligent children who are eager to learn. This is a generalization of course, but I don’t think too many would argue with this. I think promoting eagerness to learn might be one of the biggest routes to intelligence. The more one learns, the smarter they seem. As far as I.Q. tests go, they are just a test created by humans which means they are imperfect, because humans are not capable of creating anything perfect, that is the realm of God. Perhaps in the future we might find out this test is not the best measure of intelligence after all.