Two follow-ups: "Rainbows End" by V. Vinge. Maybe there'll be a cure. Or "Choosing to Die" by Terry Pratchett. Maybe there's no cure and there won't be. At least, you can decide to go on your own terms, as a person still, not a vegetable yet.
The arc of intelligence in Flowers of Algernon is the same arc we’ll all experience over our lifetime. With old age, we all lose our mental faculties. If we value intelligence, in and of itself, that loss will be very painful. But, if we value making the most of our intelligence, we are resilient.
Applying this framework to Charlie, there’s much less to be sad about. He made the most of the intelligence he was gifted, and that’s what really matters.
I think Alzheimer's is scary because it's not just about intelligence. If it was just that you become dumb(er), I wouldn't mind it that much. I must be an exception, but beyond a certain threshold (I wouldn't want to be drooling idiot) I'm not that attached to my intelligence. I'm painfully aware that I'm average and that I had the luck of having an education and a stable home that other, more intelligent but less fortunate people than me, didn't.
I think Alzheimer's is scary because your whole personality goes. Cognitive functions. Memory. You stop being independent. You cannot do the simplest things by yourself. Things become scary and you're not sure why. You are alone, surrounded by strangers.
If there was a progressive illness where you got less intelligent, but still able to function and tell who your loved ones are, remember things, and at least understand where you are and your new place in the world, to me it wouldn't be half as scary as Alzheimer's.
Alzheimer's is. I've seen it up close over its course twice. It's as bad as people imagine. You never forget the sound of someone drowning in their own saliva.
Perhaps there is more than us than just our conscience personality and the essence that vibes with the larger pattern of life and reality itself is more than our little personalized highly tuned version of “me”.
Interesting times to be alive for sure.
What? No. That is not at all true. Nearly all of my relatives - other than the one who had alzheimers - were as sharp as ever up until they died.
Citation needed
AFAIK it's not remotely true that "we all lose our mental faculties". Plenty of people do not
If I were diagnosed with dementia, I'd build automation to ensure that I'd appear to die a natural death when I enter the steep slope of cognitive decline. It's as easy as tying the results of frequent cognitive tests into a moving average that triggers my medication dispenser to start mixing in a toxin and or substituting key medication that keeps me alive with a sugar pill. These days, without the right medication, I'd be dead from "natural causes" in a week.
You appear to me to be the type who never writes any bugs in their code.
I know someone who had Alzheimer's. Was in excellent physical shape, had biomarkers of someone 20 years younger. Would go for daily walks for decades, consistently did yoga etc.
The issue, with late stage Alzheimer's (and possibly dementia in general), is that the brain starts to forget so many things it's not even funny (it never was). You forget to swallow water. You forget to chew food. You forget what the bathroom is for. It's far from "living with dignity", even if the body is still physically capable. I think lock-in syndrome is the only other medical situation I'd consider similarly traumatizing.
It's not either-or, it's both. It takes time to reach the point where you're "unaware". Before that, you're fully aware of what's happening and that there's no escape. After that point, it will probably get "better" for you, the patient.
But it also gets way, way worse for everyone around you. With cancer, you're still yourself - you die as the person you were. With dementia (or Alzheimer's at least), you die twice, and people around you are left to tend to your corpse, which happens to move and eat (even if you forget to chew and swallow) for years after you're gone.
Back to the story - the use of grammar and spelling that progress throughout the story is so simple, but such a great way to portray his progress aside from the content of the story.
If I understood risk, consistent effort, and emotions better, I would have retired in my mid twenties.
If you're here, then there's a good chance you're in a social bubble where you rarely interact with people below that threshold.
Of course, IQ is highly debated and all that. I think there is some merit to IQ, and I also think intelligence is far more complex than what can be measured on a test. Still, I wish I never knew my score because it forever lives in the back of my mind rent free when applying for jobs, trying to learn new skills, etc.. I've always had low self-esteem, so perhaps it a matter of personality when it comes to these things.
While not the literal morale of the story of Flowers for Algernon, it's one of the big themes, i.e. your beliefs and understanding of your intelligence and the world around you change drastically with your "actual" intelligence.
At best, by working in a team all you can achieve is to (rightly or wrongly) estimate your level within the team itself, but only with regards to the type of intelligence which is most used in the given context. And, given that the team members have most likely been selected for or were motivated to join because of their relevant abilities, the team is subject to selection bias.
As a result, on average, you are most likely to be very close to the perceived "average" intelligence of the teams to which you belong. Hence why impostor syndrome is so common in highly skilled professions — as a milder version of the Peter principle [0], people tend to climb to the level where their skills are average.
It is only when comparing the intelligence (or other abilities) of team members that are not relevant to their task, usually when socialising in another context, that you may become aware of broad differences and maybe get a better idea of where you fall in that specific dimension.
Plus, if they doesn't want to know, why does it matter? It's their life to live in ignorance. For this specific topic, I don't see any harm in leaving your actual IQ number a mystery for the cosmos.
[I am not a psychologist, but here is my summary of how I think the real effect works...
Let's say we have a skill we can be assessed on a scale of 1-10. 1 is worst, 10 is best.
The popular perception of the Dunning Kruger effect is that people lower on the scale, say 2 or 3, rate themselves highly - say 7 or 8. And people who are higher - say a 7 or 8 - rate themselves more modestly - say a 5 or 6. i.e. people who are less skilled rate themselves as being better performers than people who are better.
The actual effect is a lot weaker, and a kind of reversion to the mean. If you are a 2 or 3 you may rate yourself a 4 or a 5. If you are a 7 or an 8 you may rate yourself as only a 6 or a 7. Less skilled people are well aware that they are less skilled, but may underestimate the degree of the effect.]
With lifespans increasing, many of us will have Charlie's experience.
When you're that young, you're used to the idea that you will constantly learn, grow, and expand your horizons. The idea of regression is both real and likely is frightening and motivating. It's truly a story that has stuck with me.
- Exercise regularly and mitigate conditions like diabetes, hypertension*, high cholesterol [1] (aerobic exercise seems to be the best for this, likely because it increases cerebral blood flow)
- Avoid night shift work/disrupting the circadian rhythm [2] (seems to be linked to poor sleep's impact on cardiovascular health, which has in turn seen a strong link to dementia developing)
- Increase your cognitive reserve (math is very commonly mentioned as a way to boost this but I don't think it's the only way) seems to insulate you from the impacts of dementia [3] (this citation isn't a formal paper per se but this statement has been echoed across other articles[4][5])
- Read something regularly [6][7] (I have also seen articles mentioning reciting mantras, but I can't find them at the moment)
- Small doses of nicotine [8][9][10] (I am at work right now so I cannot verify whether or not these studies were funded by tobacco companies - maybe take this one with a grain of salt. Additionally, smoking cigarettes have been linked to an increased risk of dementia. It may be better to try patches or lozenges?)
* There are studies[11][12][13] that suggest high blood pressure in seniors can lead to an increased risk of dementia or worsened cognitive function for those with dementia. One common guess is that the reduced blood flow to the brain in old age is the primary issue, but it could be another covariate that leads to . Not a concern for most of us on this site (I think)
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258000/
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6164904/
[3] https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-is-cogniti...
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3507991/
[5] https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/news/building-cognitive...
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8482376/
[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2911991/
[8] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7912116/
[9] https://actaneurocomms.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s4...
[10] https://www.alzheimers.gov/clinical-trials/memory-improvemen...
[11] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8608286/
[12] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullar...
[13] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14694027/
Edited for markdown
Regardless of one's political opinion of Ronald Reagan, his letter announcing his Alzheimer's diagnosis is relevant and poignant.
https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/reagans/ronald-reagan/reagans-...
NOTICE WARNING CONCERNING THE REPRODUCTION OF THIS LETTER
The Reagan Library is authorized to make copies of this letter available only for the purpose of private study, scholarship or research. This letter may not be reproduced for publication without the expressed consent of the personal representative of Ronald Reagan. For more information contact: Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation 40 Presidential Drive Simi Valley, CA 93065 1-805-522-2977
If it makes you feel more comfortable, here is instead a reproduction by PBS: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/reagan-...
and another by Time, including an image of the original handwritten letter: https://time.com/4473625/ronald-reagan-alzheimers-letter/
neither of which include the encumbrance that the Reagan Library added to their copy.
There is something motivational about it, which is probably why there are so many YouTube productivity videos with the soundtrack. [1] I get the same feeling from The Last Samurai a book (unrelated to the Tom Cruise movie) by Helen DeWitt, which is about raising a genius child.
I don't know what the psychological effect is called, but there does seem to be something significant to the idea that it's inspiring to read about/watch extremely intelligent people flexing their intelligence.
0. The film is based on a book, The Dark Fields, which doesn't seem quite so positive, although I haven't read it.
He also wrote the best, IMHO, time-travel story ever written: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_and_the_Alchemist.... A gorgeous little tale.
I just finished reading "Flowers for Algernon" the short story and I never read the novel. It also immediately reminded me of "Limitless". (The book, I wouldn't compare it to the movie, again, at least because of that silly "happy end", which seems to be obligatory in the Hollywood.) If you want somebody's (i.e. mine) take on it: well, "Limitless" was much, much better of a read. I was a lot younger when I read it, so I don't how I would react now, but I remember it to be pleasantly realistic, unlike the vast majority of [English] sci-fi. Unlike in the movie, though, there was a lot less "magic" to MDT. There was no silly stuff like being suddenly able to multiply 10-digit numbers in the head and similar Hollywood representations of "being incredibly intelligent" which are just annoyingly stupid, if you ask me. In the book it felt very real, it was very easy to "feel" what is that effect. It's basically just an exceptionally potent nootropic drug, think "amphetamine, but better". And, yes, that was motivational. This is the main reason I remembered it, actually: there I very much felt how the protagonist was "improved". In the "Flowers for Argernon", on the other hand, it just feels like author is trying to explore some idea he isn't mentally equipped to explore. I.e., he has no idea what he is trying to describe. It's childish and unrealistic.
All I can say about "Flowers for Algernon" the short story — I was thinking that the novel must be much better for this to be considered worthwhile. But then there is an addendum at the end of this:
> The novel, published as a mainstream work by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, is not as effective as the story version, which is much tighter and written from a very successfully executed first-person point of view.
Soo… yeah. I'm not gonna try it right now. But then, again, I must admit that anybody who mostly likes sci-fi shouldn't even listen to me, because I can say only bad things about vast majority of famous sci-fi books, with only just a couple exceptions. Mostly it's literally just pulp fiction, comic books without pictures. Not what I expect when somebody talks about "literature".
I don't know about this one (I only read the story) but every time I've read a full novel that was originally a short or novelette it felt dragged out. Even when I didn't know beforehand it was made out of a short.
It's sad that the market for shorts is basically gone.
Oh... wait! Let's go on a tangent.
I used to subscribe to Asimov's on Kindle before they kicked separate subscriptions out and left only Kindle unlimited available...
Asimov's went to some dubious solution through some distributor that had their own mobile app, so I didn't renew there.
Well guess what: I checked Asimov's again and now they still have the dubious app but it looks like you can subscribe directly on their site and get epubs and pdfs! Guess I wasn't the only one who didn't like the dubious app...
There is hope for shorts after all...
Probably the most well known example is Neil Gaiman who is extremely active on tumblr, at least prior to Elon used to be extremely active on twitter, and would regularly drop into discussions of their works.
Other notable examples (albeit less active) off the top of my head include James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank) and Andy Weir.
I don't remember it being a result of a teacher prompting me, though I suspect it was. They weren't books I read in school, but perhaps a teacher asked us what books were our favorites and had us send out letters. They're all laminated, too, which makes me think the teacher(s) took them and preserved them for us.
Maybe referring to the author responding too.
Whenever I read a good book, see a great film, or appreciate an art piece, I try to track down the creator to send them a note of thanks. I'd say maybe 30% reply?
That said, I can't imagine creating something that people are still directly impacted by 60 years later. Software just doesn't seem to work like that
Hint to artists: put up a bitcoin receiving address on your portfolio (it'd make it a bunch easier).
A classic, and increasingly relevant as we continue to push the limits of improving human performance and fixing sub-optimal neurological phenomena like depression and ADD/ADHD.
I still warn people new to ADHD about the sinister side(s) of medication. One of the issues I learned real quick during the shortage of the past few years is that what ever is "given" can be "taken."
I have a decent enough job that provides me a stable life. Nothing to write home about. However, when I was off medication for bits during the shortage, I noticed that my life was built on a house a cards. I managed to create a life that I could not sustain without medication. Everything worked out in the end, but I got a nice glimpse of the what awaited me, and it's a long fall back to rock bottom.
It's made me a bit paranoid in the sense that I feel like I have to be overly cautious about financial and occupational decisions (not a bad thing, I suppose). If I were to buy a house with a certain level of income or take on a new role, I need to be certain that in a "worst case scenario" that I can still chew whatever I bit off.
Life is layers and layers of fragile.
- I like to hike, but what I really love is to be in nature and surrounded by trees.
- I like being funny and quick-witted, but what I really love is to laugh and see other laugh.
- I like to dance, but what I really love is to feel the rhythm of music in my body.
Obviously some of this is self-delusion (I'd also like to be young, strong and smart) but I find it helps.
Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31875692 - June 2022 (207 comments)
I'd say it boosts ability to utilize cognition. For me it thins brain fog and clarifies what I can see on the other side.
With it, I can reason to the point where learning and understanding happens. For a period of time. Most days.
On Recognition, Caring, and Dementia:
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.111...
Radio segment:
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/823/the-question-trap/act-t...
All repent and praise the Mouse!
Of course this is a masterpiece and isn't likely to get lost... but which copyright holder is going to keep the B and C lists available for legal access for the whole 130 years?
And speaking of which, is the story form of Flowers for Algernon available legally anywhere? The lengthened book form yes, probably. But personally I think the original form is better.
Thanks Disney.
The ending has the author talking to the scientists doing the research described in Flowers for Algernon.
Science wasn’t anymore put off by fiction than the scientists currently resurrecting the woolly mammoth (see novel Jurassic Park)…
Also referenced by the TV show Lost:
https://dirtpoorrobins.bandcamp.com/track/but-never-a-key-de...
https://open.spotify.com/track/5NXt7fGhxFGfU6h1m9x06A
The album it's on (Deadhorse, by Dirt Poor Robins) is also excellent if you like apocalyptic cinematic rock with a sci-fi radio drama vibe.
really great movie
Over the years, though, my understanding of “intelligence” has evolved and I’m of the opinion today that “it” is several independent (but not unrelated) things: the abilities to learn, to remember, to recall, to connect, to imagine are all manifest in different combinations to different effect. That complexity an nuance shows in people and explains so much.
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Algernon's funeral literally made me cry the first time reading, and still ruminates fumy tears to this day.
Technology augments us and removes our ability to do things any other way. This can be good, but it can also be bad. AI will be the drug that turns society into Charlie. I hope it will last.
i dare not glimpse what i can be for to lose it seems like a terrifying fate
But avoidance of medication just makes me thinks of the deaf people who oppose treatment because they worry they wouldn't be culturally deaf anymore.
Counterpoint. Each day I'm gifted some hours where I can think more like normal.
Chatgpt: This ambitious project was released in stages (or "stages") from 2016 to 2019, across six albums, each representing a different phase of dementia. Through his distinctive use of manipulated pre-World War II ballroom music, The Caretaker, aka Leyland Kirby, explores the progression of the disease, from subtle early signs to the total disintegration of memory and understanding. The work is both an artistic exploration and an empathetic representation of the condition's impact on the human mind and memory.
PS When I read it was so fake when the then-genius protagonist (that is on above-human level) finds it oh-so interesting to talk to that woman-professor.
"Flowers for Algernon" is a fine, memorable title that makes sense in the context of what the story is about.
Perhaps you didn't read it. If your education journey was in another locale, are there any stories that stick with you that strike a similar contemplation, of the hubris of man and the untamed heart?
