The Hidden Costs of Automated Thinking
▻https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-hidden-costs-of-automated-thinking
Like many medications, the wakefulness drug modafinil, which is marketed under the trade name Provigil, comes with a small, tightly folded paper pamphlet. For the most part, its contents—lists of instructions and precautions, a diagram of the drug’s molecular structure—make for anodyne reading. The subsection called “Mechanism of Action,” however, contains a sentence that might induce sleeplessness by itself : “The mechanism(s) through which modafinil promotes wakefulness is unknown.” Provigil (...)
