Practical transhumanism: Augmenting human intelligence and creativity

Hi all, as you may have noticed i've been very active in writing a few short horror fiction stories recently and thought I would reflect on the source of my current creative energy and how it can be artificially induced on demand. Below I outline some of the neurology behind human creativity and intelligence and then make some suggestions on how to augment it artificially.

The source of inspiration

First, the source of creativity and inspiration on a neurological/psychological level is something we should explore. Essentially, creativity comes from a mix of randomness and linking together of existing knowledge and memories in a similar manner to dreams.

The randomness must be controlled though, few creative works would benefit from completely random ideas with the exception of perhaps absurdist and surrealist fiction or comedy. What we want instead is for the brain to randomly activate specific concepts and evaluate ways in which they can be linked while evaluating how useful that link is, and whether or not we have the knowledge and skill to implement it.

At the neurological level, this means we want to slightly raise the frequency at which neurons fire so we increase the chances of activating useful concepts in short term memory and cognition.

Overclocking neurons

Membrane depolarisation is the process by which neurons fire once stimulated enough (known as the membrane depolarization threshold). If we lower the depolarization threshold artificially, neurons fire more often and this offers lots of cognitive advantages such as faster searching of the idea space and better reaction times etc. Done too much though this can lead to a pathological state such as psychosis and actual hallucinations, or it could lead to seizures.

At the physical level then, what we want is to artificially lower the depolarization threshold a little, but not too much - we could also make synapses more sensitive in order to make neurons fire more often.

There are 2 ways to do this artificially: we can use nootropic drugs that act chemically to lower the threshold or mess with synapses, or we can use direct electrical stimulation. The latter is a practice best left to experts, or those willing to take the risk of making a mistake - for that reason I can not recommend it unless you are already highly knowledgeable in how to make safe use of neural stimulation technology such as CES, tDCS and rTMS.

Biochemical and pharmaceutical approaches

We are left then with the use of drugs (or even simpler approaches such as vitamins) to alter the threshold of neurons and sensitivity of synapses. Here, we want to also not overdo it and get excitotoxicity, and so the use of a calcium channel blocker is what I propose to keep the firing rate in check. One drug that performs this function and is both safe and easy to obtain  legally is the combination anti-histamine and neuroprotective Cinnarizine, commonly sold as treatment for motion sickness and I suggest the use of this drug while doing anything else to upregulate firing rate.

To do the actual upregulation the classic approach is stimulants and general nootropics such as Piracetam (which both stimulates the AMPA receptors and acts on ion channels overall). Modafinil is a stimulant that has low cardiac risk and has such beneficial effects on cognition it is commonly compared to the fictional nootropic seen in the film "limitless". The combination of these 2 along with Cinnarizine to ward off the risk of excitotoxicity has definite proven beneficial effects on human cognition overall, but here we are interested in creativity and so must look at the psychological aspects.

Another biochemical approach is quite simple: B vitamins, B12 in particular helps with regulation of neural firing and B6 is known to increase the actual firing rate very slightly. An artificial compound known as pyritinol has been developed that is structurally similar to B6 but has drastically greater effects on measures such as reaction time, which are a good proxy for neuron firing rates.

Psychological aspects

With drugs and electrical stimulation we can tweak the physical neurons to fire more often and accelerate the time it takes to search the idea space as well as causing greater random activation of ideas, but we can also ensure the brain activates more relevant knowledge using cognitive priming.

Put simply, if people are exposed to a concept, it causes related concepts to be activated due to spreading activation of neural circuits. What we want here, if we want to ensure creative uses of our knowledge, is to use cognitive priming to activate seemingly unrelated areas of our knowledge and skills at the same time as ensuring the deeper layers of that knowledge are quick to access.

A practical way to do this is to read and expose yourself to multiple different ideas in different fields at about a 50/50 rate with studying greater in-depth on existing skillsets and knowledge. Practically, you should aim to be reading about the main subject area itself (for example, a horror writer should read plenty of horror and writing tips on horror) and unrelated areas (my recent "V" story was inspired from looking at wikipedia's article on the hubble deep field).

Creativity and flow

The state of flow is best described as the feeling of "being in the zone", it occurs when we are presented with a problem that is calibrated to our skills sufficiently so that we are not over-challenged, but neither are we bored. Shutting down outside stimuli also helps keep the mind focused on the actual problem, which is why coders are well-known for shutting out the outside world with headphones and music (I advise Nine Inch Nails for coding fuel personally).

While in flow it is easy to come out of it from a distraction, and distractions happen either from external stimuli or from ideas popping up that are not relevant, therefore a proposed way to keep yourself from distraction (aside from asking not to be disturbed and using headphones) is to prime yourself heavily with ONLY the actual problem you are trying to solve, or the general area.

Leave the inspiration as planning work and prime yourself with unrelated ideas in the inspiration stage, then for implementation ensure your mind is primed only with the output of that inspiration stage.

The use of drugs to enhance focus is a practice that can work sometimes as well, by keeping us within the task at hand - but as with all uses of drugs, care must be taken not to overdo it. Those who suffer from a medical condition such as ADHD should ensure they are taking the appropriate medication of course - but for those of us who do not suffer from such conditions many of the same meds are famous for their illicit use as nootropics and if this is done safely it is a practice I fully support.

Risks and a disclaimer

One thing to make clear on the subject of drugs though: stimulants in particular can carry risks such as psychosis and cardiac issues and addiction. Addiction will ruin your cognitive powers in the long run and so should be avoided at all costs. Substances such as methamphetamine should not be used at all, and medications for ADHD such as methylphenidate should be used with precaution in people who are not prescribed them - in an ideal world we would all be able to get a medical profession to prescribe these drugs for use as cognitive enhancers while controlling for safety and monitoring for problems such as addiction, but in the real world this is not possible.

Aside from the medical risks of stimulant drugs, attention should be paid to the legal risks - many are controlled substances. I therefore would advise people to stick with substances such as modafinil and piracetam before exploring other substances as they carry less risk both legally and medically.

Above all, you must always do your own research - I am not responsible for anyone who reads my words and harms themselves through lack of research.

It is probably best to avoid controlled substances completely unless a doctor prescribes them to you, and for non controlled substances you should always check with a doctor if you have any medical condition or take any medications which could interact.