I find it interesting that I haven't had (to my recollection), a single virtual conversation with anyone on my friends list. This is not to say that I mind, after all I advertised this journal as a gift of sorts, an open invitation to watch a smart drugs experiment in progress, so there is no duty incumbent on anyone to talk to the subject. Just thought it was an interesting point to observe that I do indeed feel a little like an experimental subject, the unknown aliases and avatars of people swooping around my data, hopefully find interesting or entertaining bits to digest.

I just wanted to mention that this can be an interactive process if anyone wants to make it so, I am open to suggestion as to how to improve my test taking and therefore the results and validity the experiment can show or provide. Suggestions of where to find online tests and the like are always appreciated.

No hard data today, that'll be for day 14, but I wanted to get on paper my qualitative thoughts about how things are going. All that follows is just notes on how thing have gone, how i've felt and what i've thought. Hopefully useful to anyone else looking to start a regimin, as well as simply for academic value.

First off, the negatives. Piracetam is very, very bitter in powder form. I tried immersing it in coffee, even sweetened with syrup but it was like drinking cough mixture. Water on it's own is akin to drinking chalk. Lemon squash vaguely masks the taste enough to be bearable, but I have to say orange trumps all in the 'minimising nasty taste' stakes. The first day of taking an attack dose I was fine, but the second day I had a bad headache, however this was gone the next day and has not recurred. I would guess, having read similar experiences, that the dosage took me over my body's limit, and it evened itself out and has remained at a tolerable level since.

Ok so on to the positives. I'm really enjoying the experience :) It's not just knowing that i'm taking a personal journey of self-improvement, part of this is mental and emotional stimulation of the best sort, being excited and curious about what's happening. The other side of the coin is that most of the time I feel just *slightly* high. Not enough to effect my day to day interaction with people and things, but enough that if I pause for a moment, I can feel it there. This is wonderful. My general health is still fine, no differences in daily processes/food intake etc.

Further observations are difficult to categorise really. I'm ever so aware of the quantum physics problem, measuring something changes your experience of it. Try as I might to avoid the placebo effect, it's practically impossible, given what I am expecting from the results of taking the nootropics. Still, I can observe the following, based on what I have read from others experiences too:
Some people report seeing colours more vividly, I have not experienced this.
Some people report feeling more remote from others and distanced from loved ones. I actually feel closer and have talked more with my significant others, though this may be a by product of feeling generally 'happier' at the moment.
Some people report issues with having words 'on the tip of their tongue', both good and bad. It seems to take me less time to think of a word i'm after.
Some people report noticing more things as they travel. I do feel sometimes that I am noticing things in my periphery of vision more.
Some people report being able to follow multiple conversations at once whilst performing other tasks. I can appreciate what this means, as I get the feeling that i'm taking in more information, ie as I'm working at my desk I'm able to 'skim' the conversation others are having at a nearby desk, but I wouldn't classify this as proper multi-tasking yet. This type of measurement is probably best left to the tests i'll be doing again on day 14.

Whilst I'm doing this experiment for myself, this journal is being kept for others to have a window in to my experiences. As such, if there are any questions anyone wants to ask then please do. You're more than likely going to think of something I hadn't thought to mention, and I'm of course happy to talk about the experiences. Likewise if anyone can think of further analytical or other tests they would like to see then please do mention them. Whilst I have a source of 'mental agility' test, I only have a handful of online IQ test sites for instance, so will run out of those within a month or two unless I can track down somewhere that provides different tests each time. This journal is a for other grinders too, i'd love to hear your thoughts.

From grinding.be: Networked pills. I'm thinking our PAN's are only going to be limited by our imagination.

As per my previous post, I've now sourced and acquired some Choline tablets and started taking those instead of the Lecithin as of this morning. Whilst I'm tempted to do a new 'Day 0' I think i'll just keep going as is, after all this is not a double-blind or placebo test, this is live experimentation, and a little later on i'll be adjusting dosages to try and find the optimal mix anyway.

Dosage is now:
Piracetam 3000mg/day
Choline 750mg/day
Vitamin+mineral supplement

Also I welcome those of you that have joined me to watch the results of my experiment, thanks for taking the time to look in. As well as updates on my state of mind and being (as well as the fortnightly test results too) I'll be posting some thoughts on transhumanism and the philosophies behind it. Feel free to dive in or ignore of course.

Further research has indicated that lecithin is in fact quite a poor source of Choline with specific regard to assisting with synergising the Piracetam. The 1200mg capsules I am taking apparently contain only 10% phosphatidyl choline, so essentially each capsule is only giving me 36mg :s

Time to pop to the local healthfood store then, and pick up some choline. However I can only find it mixed with Inositol, but that's really no hardship! These tablets will be able to provide me with 750mg/day choline which should be enough to balance and synergise the Piracetam. Hopefully the lack of choline explains away the mild headaches, and this change to the schedule will resolve that

The first morning I felt strange. It was like coming up on gear but never quite getting there, and this feeling lasted in to the evening. It was easy to think 'I can concentrate more/i am processing faster/i am operating faster' but I am trying to bear in mind the placebo effect. I kept remembering random things, but again I think this may have been more a result of intense reading and research in to the effects on improving memory and the like rather than the drug itself, given I have only been under it's influence a short while and assume it's effects on memory etc would take longer to manifest.

Both nights I have felt tired a couple of hours earlier than usual, but still went to sleep at the normal time. The next day and today I feel normal, if a little bit spaced out. I had couple of headaches but they came and went very fast, were very light and without pain.

The regimin itself is fairly easy to keep, I have reminders on my PC which to a good job of helpin gme get in to the routine of regular dosage. The lecithin capsules are still huge and annoying to swallow!

No Piracetam has arrived as yet, but have decided to start the Lecithin anyway. This also gives me the opportunity to format some kind of progress/monitoring statistics.

I decided on the following:
BMI
Though I dislike BMI as a standard of measurement being that it does not take frame size in to account, not the fact that muscle weighs more than fat, at least it's an easy-to-calculate figure that has relevance. Interesting to note Piracetam is also marked as being positive for muscle gain so may be interesting to see what happens here.
IQ
Again not the be-and-end-all of intelligence but at least it's standardised.
Mental performance
The requirement here was for a (free, online) test I could retake that would measure various aspects of my mental performance. I found this on the excellent Channel 4 website. It measures memory, time perception, reaction and mental agility (Stroop test). Pretty much everything I wanted even if it is aimed at testing performance whilst sleep-deprived, plus it's repeatable.
Notes
Anything I can think of including effects on mood, health concerns etc.

The stat blocks will be friends-only, as they do contain personal info, but i'll still be public posting about the experience itself.

One thing to note straight away then, the lecithin capsules are pretty large and are not the most pleasant of things to try and swallow. I'll keep going with them but if they prove annoying I may switch to pure Choline after a fortnight.

So I ordered some drugs, Lecithin and Piracetam to be precise. One post on grinding.be got me interested in the 'Smart Drugs' topic, and i've decided to try out a regimin. I wouldn't say i've done exhaustive research, after all there's only so much time I can devote to it, but I have done enough to satisfy fears about safety and side-effects. After all this is my brain we're talking about here. Wikipedia entries showed me a list of smart drugs, Piracetam is the main one, also DMEA, Hydergine, Choline. They all do different things, but the net result is being 'brighter'. erewod.com showed me the experiences other people have had with the drugs, including in combination with each other. I chose Piracetam as the main booster, and am taking Lecithin as a supplement, to provide both synergy between Piracetam and the Choline in the Lecithin, and have also read that this combination is needed to prevent headaches that occur if you just take Piracetam, as it can deplete Choline levels. DMEA looked ok but there are doubts as to it's affect on longevity, it seems depending on the person and dosage it can either add or subtract from lifespan, and i'm not willing to risk irreversible damage. Hydergine appears to be relatively safe, but is both more expensive than the lethicin supplement, and also I read less reports about it and dosage etc, so am not as confident with it as the P+L combo. Also one of the only reported side-effects from P are the headaches, which are easily resolved by lowering or even ceasing dosage. P has no addictive qualities (at least physical ones, I do wonder whether becoming smarter and staying that way would be psychologically addictive after all..) The other main effect is a slight intellectualisation, which for me is not really going to mean much difference, as I am a very calm and laid back person anyway, and very in control of my emotions.

I've got an IQ of 134 according to my last couple of IQ tests, and I intend to take one test a month to see the effects over at least a 3 month period. I'm not expecting miracles, but it will be interesting to find out the effects, which of course I will be documenting here.

Initially i'm going to take an 'attack dose' of 6000mg/day for 2 days, then drop back to 3000mg/day, assuming I feel ok. I'm expecting to feel a change in perception for the first day, and gradually i should be able to handle more data concurrently, my general perception and processing speed should improve, and my memory too. If at any stage I feel unwell then I will shift back on the dosage, as apparently it is different for everyone, and finding the 'sweet spot', especially considering the synergistic qualities of the P and L/C combo, may take some fine tuning. If adjusting dosage does not result in the reduction of bad symptoms, then I will cease the experiment after 2 weeks.

So why am I doing this then? Well the idea intrigues me. Humanity already has a deeply ingrained culture of drug taking (anyone arguing with me will be pointed firmly at the local pub), and recent history has shown us myriad ways of getting our collective rocks off in a recreational fashion. So why not take a substance that can actually improve your brain? I spent some time in my youth as a gearhead, for reasons I won't go in to here. Even now I get this nagging feeling that i'm not as quick as I used to be. My memory is definitely much worse than it was. So I'd like to try and undo some of the damage I inflicted on my brain if at all possible. Years of excessive drinking whilst a student will also have had their effect on my mental acuity. Piracetam, whilst not having any particular clinical experimentation to back it up, has been theorised to regrow damaged nerves over time as well as boosting overall mental performance. So fingers crossed it will help me recover some of my lost IQ!

Both drugs were fairly easy to find online, and both are legal here, so there are no worries there. The Lecithin arrived this morning, and i'm still wondering whether I should have bought plain Choline instead, but what i've read supports the idea that the Choline in the Lecithin should be enough to offset any negative effect of the Piracetam. Hopefully the P will arrive on Monday, and I can begin the experiment then.

Some jawdropping moments in this video about the future of photo viewing and manipulation software, though the speaker doesn't have much time it seems, they even dip in to globalisation with the indication that all photos everywhere could be linked 'in one massive multiverse'.

Ironically, the embed code for this vid doesn't work in LJ, so here's the link:

Ridiculous Image Technology Coming