Quite often we find descriptions of already available or merely envisaged cognitive enhancement technologies, both in the popular media and in scientific journals, informed by the assumption that those technologies will eventually be used to benefit humanity. Fairly common are statements such as the following from an article that appeared a few years ago in Time:

That would be very nice indeed. But how likely is it really that things will turn out that way? Legions of extremely smart cancer researchers racing toward a cure? Seems rather too good to be true. Wise Wall Street executives? Sounds more like a contradiction in terms. It appears far more likely that the latter will use their improved brains to find even more effective ways to enrich themselves, and the former may also feel that they have far better things to do than spending all their time and energy on finding a cure for cancer.