(no subject)

Wednesday October 6, 2010 I've been thinking about the "everybody gets much smarter" sf trope. It's been used five times that I know of in science fiction. Poul Anderson (Brain Wave) and Vernor Vinge (A Fire Upon the Deep) with fictional science which has restraints on intelligence removed. John Brunner (The Stone That Never Came Down), H. G. Wells ("In the Days of The Comet"), and a story whose title and author I don't remember: people become better at using the intelligence they have.

Today, I came up with an alternative which I might be able to believe long enough to use it in a story. Brain implants, basically.

Sparked partly by this:
Public Release: 6-Oct-2010
Neuropsychologia
Psychologist finds 'shocking' impact on name recall
Temple psychologist Ingrid Olson has found a way to improve the recall of proper names. In a recent study, she found that electric stimulation of the right anterior temporal lobe of the brain improved the recall of proper names in young adults by 11 percent.
Contact: Ingrid Olson
ingrid.olson@temple.edu
215-204-7318
Temple University
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-10/tu-pf100610.php

***Blumenthal vs. McMahon
David Bernstein October 5, 2010 1:51 pm

Interesting race in Connecticut. One candidate’s adult life has been spent in a profession in which testosterone-infused alpha male types engage in well-choreographed bombast for the benefit of the credulous masses.

And the other has spent her career in professional wrestling.
http://volokh.com/2010/10/05/blumenthal-vs-mcmahon/

***Met with my ACA sponsor at Mercado Centro. (ACA: Adult Children of Alcoholic and Otherwise Dysfunctional Families Anonymous. Mercado Centro: Hispanic mall in Minneapolis, on Lake near Bloomington.)