Ah yes, I've keeping a somewhat lazy eye on projects like this. I'm waiting for a relatively low cost and safe kit to pop up and I'll just try it on a couple of things to see if it actually works. There are people who say it works, but I never actually see them use it for stuff that I'd be interested in using it for. I always see them writing about how they improve with a dual n-back game or something and I'm thinking "Okay, that's fine, but have you used it to learn some math or try out if reading comprehension increases or something?"
I know it's more subjective there and prone to placebos and the likes, but just an anecdote would do it for me. I mean, what I want to test is to see if it's possible to improve reading. It's been suggested that these kinds of things sorta emulate the kind of brain patterns that a savant would have, and the savant that interests me the most is Kim Peek, the man who could read books rapidly and remember every detail about them.
I'd like to see if such a feat is capable with tDCS and the likes. I've never seen someone actually test for stuff like that though.
Its unsettling factor slightly outweighs its "holy shite I need that" factor. Notwithstanding the potential adverse effects it could pose, which aren't fully understand and probably won't be very easy to pinpoint, this somehow feels very inhuman. I'm not sure, but this seems to fall within the realm of transhumanism. Don't get me wrong, if this can treat chronic depression better than the current cocktail of chemicals we have available, then that's a gosh darn godsend.
But it feels like a cheat code for learning. Will we lose the qualities that struggle and difficulty brings out in people? Persistence, faith, understanding, empathy, determination? Won't this fundamentally change who we are as a species? Will we be satisfied when working towards a goal that used to feel triumphant will merely feel routine?
The potential is great, yet I can't help feeling this will dull some of the qualities that make us human.