Modern neuroscience and the dystopia

I feel I have to write about science so when I found this interesting study on the side-effects of parkinsons treatment. So it seemed a perfect connection with one of my favourite forms of literature the dystopian novel.

Parkinsons disease is caused by the rapid death of a special type of dopamine producing brain cells. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which has a varity of functions in the brain but chief among them is helping to produce movement. So to simplify it a little, as there less and less dopamine in the brain Parkinsons patients gradually are less and less able to move. This is treated by a cocktail of drugs which hopefully create more dopamine in the brain. The other function of dopamine is a reward chemical, so when you win a game of tennis or cards or hunt that deer (in a more hunter gatherer context) your brain produces extra dopamine, giving you that wonderful transcendent pleasure. The study by Mayo clinic found in 18.4% of patients taking therapeutic dose of parkinsons drugs, hyper-sexuality and compulsive gambling, but none of these disorders were found in the parkinsons patients who were not being treated by these drugs.

This finding connects with literature and society because it is now blatantly obvious drugs can control change and determine who we are. In Brave New World central to the story is the drug soma which gives instant pleasure to the masses creating a blissed out conflict-free consensus which creates absolute conformity. But "Todays Brave New World will have a multitude of designer psychotropics" as neuroscientist Steven Rose says in his book 21st Century Brain. Today we have drugs which will make people more sexual, gamble and probably consume more. We have ritalin which offers to increase concentration on demand. Some drugs like LSD and mescaline are used to create religious experiences on demand. It seems our technological development is in part offering us technology which could create a dystopia which will surpass all of the previous generations wildest dreams. In America it seems Ritalin is already passed around schools and university campuses to improve performance. One wonders what happens if a drug company creates a hyper-memory, hyper-concentration drug which almost guarentees exam success?

These developments suggest what I have always thought when comparing the two great dystopias Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. While Nineteen Eighty-Four was more horrifying (and is today alive in North Korea), Brave New World was more subtle but will always be relevant to every society. Following this now is perhaps an opportunity for a new dystopia waiting in the wings. When Huxley was writing in the 1930s it was a transition where modernity was just coming into view. Now I think post-modernity seems to be coming just coming into view.