4 ms·

Four months ago, 200+ comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9242379 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9242379

• dmichulke 11y ago
  Elaborating on one of the ideas there: If there were a simple molecule that increases your brain function by a significant percentage without negative long-term consequences, evolution would have probably found it already.
  • bottled_poe 11y ago
    That's not necessarily true. While I agree that the production of these chemicals takes a lot of energy/resources which may not be worth the tradeoff within the human body, there is no reason to believe such benefits cannot be achieved through externally produced drugs. Also, evolution is a game of chance, and the required mutations may not have occurred in humans yet.
  • rrss1122 11y ago
    That's the thing. Evolution has found a lot of molecules that provide immediate benefits with little long-term consequences (along with a lot that have long-term consequences too). The pharmaceutical industry just hasn't found them all yet.