Can't remember phone numbers? Worried about an upcoming exam or desperately want to give up smoking? In future, the answer will be simple: just pop a pill. The idea that an array of easily available, addiction-free drugs could be used to improve memory or increase intelligence is the stuff of science fiction dystopia-in "Brave New World", Aldous Huxley created a whole planet under the spell of a pleasure drug called Soma.
But a new report by leading scientists in the fields of psychology and neuroscience argues that,very soon, there really will be a pill for every ill "It is possible that advances could usher in a new era of drug use without addiction," says the report by Foresight, Britain's science-based think-tank.
"In a world that is increasingly non-stop and competitive, the individual's use of such substances may move from the fringe to the norm"
Drugs that work on the brain are already common-many people can hardly begin their days without the mind-sharpening effects of caffeine or nicotine.