When I first started to write about our emerging neurosociety, I thought about starting the book off with a couple of fictional accounts of how individuals across different walks of life would live in a world permeated by neurotechnology. I still have those stories, and they are becoming more real to me each day.
In this month's Stanford Alumni magazine, Joan Hamilton ponders a very similiar future in if they could read your mind. Here is part of her fictional account:
September 12, 2028. Your Local University.
Jean Perry brushes lint off Nick’s blue blazer as they sit down before a gray-haired gentleman in tweeds. This is Nick’s freshman pharmaceutical review board hearing, and Dr. Better is checking Nick’s file. “I have your application here for an Enhancement prescription,” says Dr. Better, “but with .”
“Yes. I’m willing to do that.”
“Doctor,” says Jean, “Nick has never shown any violent tendencies. We just want him to have access to all the same study-aid drugs the other students do.”
“Of course, Mrs. Perry. I believe that will be fine. Now, on another subject, I do have good news. We have reviewed Nick’s learning-sensitivity scans, and we have approved that he be tracked in our more symbolic curriculum.”
your violent tendencies profile, we’ll have to ask you to agree to regular brain scans if we give you something like Ritalin-3 or Focusalin----
While I think that Joan's projections are a bit off (by that I mean cogniceuticals to improve learning will be around long before 2028), I still found her wanderings into our future worthy. Read the rest of the article to see what happens on November 30, 2056 at your local hospice.
Zack Lynch is author of 
