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alt.chi: Intimate Interfaces
CHI 2014, One of a CHInd, Toronto, ON, Canada
Brave New Interactions:
Performance-Enhancing Drugs for
Human-Computer Interaction
Henning Pohl
University of Hannover
Hannover, Germany
Henning@hci.uni-hannover.de
Abstract
In sports, some athletes resort to performance enhancing
drugs to gain an advantage. Similarly, people use
pharmaceutical drugs to aid learning, dexterity, or
concentration. We look at how such drugs could
potentially be used to enhance interactions. We envision
that in the future, people might take pills along with their
vitamins in the morning to improve how they can interact
over the day. In addition to performance boosts this, e.g.,
could also include improvements in enjoyment or fatigue.
Author Keywords
Performance-enhancing drugs; boosting performance;
augmentation; enhanced interaction
ACM Classification Keywords
H.5.m [Information interfaces and presentation (e.g.,
HCI)]: Miscellaneous.
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CHI 2014
, April 26–May 01, 2014, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Copyright c 2014 ACM 978-1-4503-2474-8/14/04$15.00.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2559206.2578882
Introduction
We currently see widespread use of pharmaceutical drugs
for purposes other than treating diseases. Students
cramming for their next exam or athletes training for an
upcoming race resort to such performance-enhancing
substances to gain an advantage. This is currently a
controversial issue and generally this behavior is seen
quite critically by many. However, this stance is a matter
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of perspective and we can imagine changes in morals that
make this behavior acceptable or even desirable. In fact,
we can see that some performance-enhancing drugs are
already widely accepted. Nobody would doubt the
integrity of ones performance if one were to extensively
consume caffeine, yet caffeine, as well, is a
performance-enhancing substance.
This should not be seen as an endorsement or
demonization of such practices. Instead, we feel this is an
issue that is going to be more significant in the future and
think it is worthwhile to have an early discussion on how
this could impact the field of human-computer interaction.
In medical and educational contexts this topic is already
hotly debated, but should usage of performance-enhancing
drugs in the future become more acceptable the issue is
going to impact many more areas. As human-computer
interaction research always has to take into account the
user, we should not exclude a future possibility of that
user being more malleable than right now.
Here, we present areas where performance-enhancing
drugs could improve users and how such changes in users
could impact human-computer interaction. Drugs could,
e.g., increase endurance (potentially impacting how we
investigate task load), concentration, or decrease stress.
We hope this can be an opener to a lively debate where
both sides—those who oppose any modification of
humans and those interested in augmenting the
human—can exchange their views on the issue.
in pretty much all sports, use of performance-enhancing
drugs (i.e., doping) is nevertheless not that rare.
Especially in endurance sports (e.g., cycling) and in sports
requiring raw physical strength (e.g., weightlifting),
performance-enhancing drugs can offer a big competitive
advantage. This is not a recent development and the
earliest official ban on such substances dates back to as
early as 1928 [22]. However, doping and its prosecution
are a cat-and-mouse game, where the incentives to alter
ones body to gain an edge is too strong for any deterrence
to have an effect. In fact, some have even argued for
officially allowing performance-enhancing drugs in sports
in face of the realities [22].
Cognition-enhancing drugs on the other hand are found,
e.g., in more academic settings. Low and Gendaszek, for
example, surveyed students at a small US college and
found that 35.5% of the undergraduates had used
amphetamines without having a corresponding
prescription [17]. Use was primarily motivated by a desire
to boost academic performance.
Enhancing Interactions via Drugs
Interaction does not come for free. Working on a
computer system can impose demands on attention,
induce stress, require memorization of a large set of
possible inputs and even have physical demands. With
extensive computerization of the workplace, most
employees today are working in front of screens and are
thus impacted by how our interactive systems work. This
is not to say that life was stress-free and easy before, but
the complexity of modern information systems is certainly
larger than many earlier pen-and-paper processes. In this
section, we provide an overview of current
performance-enhancing drugs’ effects that could be
beneficial for interactions.
Performance-Enhancing Drug Categories
Drugs are used to boost (1) physical performance, and (2)
cognitive performance. Physical performance-enhancing is
most commonly associated with competitive sports. While
generally regarded as unethical and universally condemned
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Concentration
In many occupations concentration is of the utmost
importance, e.g., in an operating room or in an air-traffic
control tower. Performing complex tasks is strenuous and
even in the healthy the capacity to make active choices is
limited [1]. Several drugs are available already that boost
attention and focus, such as amphetamine salts (Adderall)
or methylphenidate (Ritalin) [9]. Developed to help
patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the
same drugs also improve the performance of the healthy.
Memorization
Drugs intended for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease
such as donepezil (Aricept) [10], brahmi, piracetam
(Nootropil), or galantamine (Reminyl) [2] have been
shown to somewhat improve memory in healthy
individuals as well. While this might be beneficial for a
number of tasks (and most likely training as well), there
could be a risk of making things we would like to forget
harder to forget. In contrast to enhancing memorization,
drugs are also being developed to block memories (e.g.,
for after traumatic events) [11].
Motivation
Cakic states that when “overcome by a lack of motivation
[. . . ] selegiline (Deprenyl) is for you” [2] and indeed
selegiline has shown promise in helping people overcome
addictive behavior (e.g., smoking [6]). However, this effect
does not necessarily generalize to a universal motivation
boost. Such a more general effect was self-reported by
some users of Adderall and Ritalin though [14].
Learning
As we age, our capability to lean new skills slowly
deteriorates. Learning a new language at age 50 is not as
easy as at age 5. It has recently been shown that
histone-deacetylase inhibitors can help adults reactivate
some of those learning capabilities—acquiring the skill of
absolute pitch [7].
Fatigue
Having to stay awake and perform, e.g., in shift-work or
emergency situations can be aided by drugs such as
modafinil (Provigil) [18, 25]. While such drugs are
designed to help, e.g., narcolepsy patients, they also can
support healthy people in working longer than their body
would usually support them. This property is also
desirable in the military and it thus should not be a
surprise that many fighter pilots use such drugs to
enhance alertness and performance [8]. In addition to
pharmaceuticals, common substances such as caffeine also
have an effect on fatigue [24].
Strength
Strength-boosting drugs are already widely used in sports
today. Particularly anabolic steroids are common and can
increase strength by about 5–20% [12]. However, steroids
can have strong side-effects and would not be an
appropriate substance to use for general usage.
Issues of Performance-Enhancing Drug Use
Of course, performance enhancing drugs are no wonder
elixir with only positive impact. In fact, three issues are
regularly brought up (e.g., in [2, 5, 9]) when discussing
performance-enhancing drugs, cognition-enhancing ones in
particular: safety, fairness, and coercion.
Safety
The acceptability of side-effects is closely related to the
effects of a drug. It would be unacceptable for a drug
against the common cold to cause hallucinations or hair
loss. However, we are more generous in what is acceptable
in, say, a drug to fight cancer. As performance-enhancing
use does not serve a direct medical purpose even mild
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side-effects could be deemed too much. While some
performance-enhancing drugs are known to be more
dangerous—like methylphenidate, which has an increased
abuse liability [16]—many
“display minimal adverse effects
and in some cases appear to be neuroprotective”
[2]. In
general, with non-critical drugs, it should probably be
people’s choice whether they want to trade certain
benefits for certain risks. If risks are in range with other
over-the-counter drugs, it would be unreasonable to apply
more restrictions.
Fairness
When used in competitive settings, such as sports, the
issue of fairness often receives the most attention. This is
under the assumption that there is a natural even playing
field and only the added use of performance-enhancing
drugs skews the odds. However, genetics or
socioeconomic advantages already give some people an
edge. In fact, some drugs such as modafinil show better
results in users with lower IQs, conferring the greatest
advantage to those that need it the most [23].
Coercion
Pressure to perform and an assumption that others might
boost their performance with drugs is said to drive people
to take them as well. This becomes a bigger issue the
more of a boost performance-enhancing drugs provide.
For example, we can assume nobody feels a need to drink
a lot of coffee to keep up with their fellow students, but a
professional cyclist probably feels more pressure when it
comes to abuse of banned substances. In an HCI context,
coercion would be most likely an issue if employers
directly or indirectly forced employees to take certain
medication to, e.g., be more focused at work. However,
there might be cases where it could be deemed okay for
employers to do so. If one were to show that some
low-risk medication could improve the performance of,
say, air-traffic controllers at their tasks, thus increasing
the safety of many, a case could be made for such direct
coercion to be alright. Warren et al. have investigated a
similar scenario for the case of surgeons [26].
HCI-Specific Applications of Performance-
Enhanching Drugs
When it comes to HCI, the question remains: how would
performance-enhancement apply to interactions? Will
future interface designers also need to think about
supplements for their users to go along with a design?
And what kind of enhancement will be possible in the
future at all? Here we assume prolonged progress in
developing safe and potent performance-enhancers and
look at how this could impact interactive systems.
Overall, we do not believe much will change for the
majority of interfaces. After all, it is only a small subset of
all interactive systems that require high attention and do
not allow to design for just ease of use. For example, a
media streaming application would probably not be
designed with performance-enhanced users in mind.
However, there are interactive systems where this might
be more of a concern. As mentioned earlier, many fighter
pilots already boost their performance via drugs. We can
envision future fighter plane designs to deliberately expect
pilots to adapt to more high bandwidth and stressful
interaction. Pushing just the machine to the limit might
not be enough when the user cannot keep up.
But the military is only the most extreme example. There
are also a number of high-pressure civilian jobs where
humans have to make fast decisions with high impact
results on interactive systems. Telemedicine, air-traffic
control, reactor safety, or electronic trading come to mind.
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An employer placing a user in front of a Bloomberg
Terminal to place trades could desire that individual to be
focused longer than possible without enhancement. In
fact, that employee herself could wish to do so to gain a
competitive edge. Maybe those terminals in the future can
be made more powerful by adding even more complexity
at a level only to be mastered after enhancement (e.g., via
more complicated shortcut structures).
While there certainly can be operational benefits, many
benefits might materialize just in the training for a new
system. With drugs to aid memorization and skill
acquisition, training costs could be lower.
Altering human performance via drugs would call some
assumptions interface design currently operates on in
doubt. For example, according to Card et al., users can
keep
≈
7
items in short term memory [3]. It might well be
that with some current or future cognition-enhancing drug
this estimate would not be appropriate anymore. When
evaluating task load (e.g., via NASA-TLX) it might be
necessary to collect augmentation level from participants
as well. High fatigue in a user regularly taking
performance-enhancers would probably need to be
registered differently than in a non-augmented user.
While all the potential use cases above remain
hypothetical for now, some use of pills for interaction
seems to be just around the corner. At the 2013 D11
conference, e.g., Motorola showed a pill that, when
ingested, essentially turns the body into an authentication
token
1
. While a pill like this just uses the body to power
up, it still could be a way to prime users for accepting
that some interactions require them to take a pill.
1
http://allthingsd.com/20130603/passwords-on-your-skin-and-
Notes on Potential Study Design
When evaluating how performance-enhancing drugs aid in
human-computer interaction, we are faced with strong
hurdles. Studies involving pharmaceuticals, for example,
often require a more restrictive approval process with an
ethical review board (or institutional review board). With
no clear health benefit associated with the interactions,
but health risks due to the drugs used, it is harder to
make a clear case for this kind of investigation.
Human-computer interaction researchers also are generally
not trained to, e.g., respond to medical complications or
other issues arising from the use of medical drugs.
Alternatively, researchers could look for participants
already taking a drug whose effect on interactions is to be
investigated. This would be easiest with drugs seeing
widespread use already (e.g., Ritalin at some institutions).
However, participants could be unwilling to admit which
substances they use. Furthermore, when participants
already use a substance it becomes much harder to
control for amount taken or tolerance.
Instead of evaluating actual pharmaceuticals, some of the
effects could be investigated by resorting to placebos [4].
In this case, we could still get some effect even though no
active substance is used. The placebo effect can be quite
strong and has been shown to even exist in animals [19].
Even though no active substance would be administered,
placebos can still have harmful effects though. Those
negative reactions have been described as the nocebo
effect [15]. Hence, while we can reduce the risk by not
administering actual drugs to participants, there would
still be a risk associated with studying the effect on
human-computer interactions.
If a study was performed with actual drugs or with
placebos, some additional aspects on top of standard
in-your-stomach-inside-googles-wild-motorola-research-projects-
video/
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